The First Time
by MyCedarChest
Summary: Life is full of meeting people for the first time, and we all know that first impressions do tend to steer the course for future relationships.
1. Chapter 1

Meeting Tony for the First Time

Pepper had been hired by Stark Industries for their junior executive training program one month before she graduated from UCLA with an MBA. Bernie Sharp the head of the SI accounting department had personally selected her for the program. She had been working for Stark Industries for only 3 months in the accounting department when she was assigned by her supervisor, Claire Borden to help oversee the budget for SI's R&D department.

Claire was a veteran of the SI budget wars having worked for SI for the past 42 years. Pepper had been blessed since childhood with a good judge of character and Claire definitely made her 'good guy' list of people that she liked and trusted at SI.

She sat stiffly at her desk and blew her bangs out of her eyes in frustration with her new assignment. She knew that this assignment was part of her grooming for a promotion on the corporate fast track to a middle management job for SI for the purpose of testing her 'grace under fire' as Claire had pleasantly told her. Somehow Claire's sweet delivery of her new assignment did little to calm Pepper's concerns about one of the most important departments at Stark Industries. Pepper knew that she had never lacked grace under fire. Graduating at the top of her class with a Masters Degree in Business Administration at the age of 21 had proven that. But she was still a little unnerved with the significance of her new assignment.

As she read the summaries for each proposed project, she was struck by the tone presented in the wording. If she had to put a finger on the tone she might have labeled it as arrogance. She narrowed her eyes at the stack of summaries that still needed to be read by tomorrow's meeting and then glanced at her clock suddenly realizing that it was already 4:30PM. So much for going out with her new friends from the office for happy hour after work tonight. She had turned 21 only four months ago, and happy hour still meant something special to her. She was disappointed. So grudgingly she went back to reading the documents. Precisely at 8:32 PM she walked out the door past Charlie the SI night security guard who waved 'goodnight' to her, wanting nothing more than a hot shower and the left over homemade chicken vegetable soup sitting in her neglected refrigerator.

The annual budget review for R&D was scheduled to start at 10:00 AM the next morning and given the sheer volume of projects to be covered, Pepper found it absurd to realistically expect to cover all of the projects in detail in only two hours. She arrived 10 minutes early for the meeting joining Claire at the large conference table. Ten O'clock came and went without anyone signaling the start of the meeting. After a few minutes, Pepper looked around and noticed that none of the people in the meeting were from SI R&D.

"Wasn't this meeting scheduled to begin at 10:00AM?" she whispered to Claire.

Claire nodded at her. "We are waiting on Mr. Stark and his engineers to join us." Claire replied looking the conference room door as if willing it to open.

As they continued to wait for the rest of attendees to join them, Pepper found herself growing somewhat frustrated. After all, she had many other assignments that she could be working on right now instead of working after hours trying to finish them while she waited here twiddling her thumbs. She was not at all happy with Mr. Stark or his engineers.

She had of course heard many rumors about Anthony Stark, CEO of Stark Industries. He had accepted the position of CEO over two years ago as per the conditions of Howard Stark's will and definitely not for his leadership talents. Most of the rumors she had heard about him made reference to his playboy lifestyle, but a few of them spoke of his fondness for being extremely late to meetings. Apparently his fondness for being late was not a rumor after all given that the current time was now 10:44 AM with no beginning to the meeting in sight.

Suddenly the conference room door flew open and a dark haired man with a goatee in his early twenties strode confidently into the room followed closely by 10 men who could only be described as 'tech groupies' given their proximity to Mr. Stark and their obvious geek-like appearances. Pepper had never seen Tony Stark before in person, and the photos she had remembered seeing showed him to be clean shaven, leading her to believe that the crisply manicured facial hair was somehow a recent addition.

Having passed directly behind her on his way to the front of the conference room, Pepper couldn't help but notice his very distinctive cologne which trailed behind him like a wake from a passing speedboat. She had to shake her head in order to clear her senses of it, fussing at herself as how quickly he seemed to distract her.

"OK, let's get started." Stark said curtly as he pulled his chair up to the head of the table. "I got a hot lunch date…well actually two hot lunch dates." Pepper saw the engineers on either side of him snicker at Stark's remark.

Pepper couldn't help but roll her eyes in reaction to Mr. Stark's brashness. 'What an asshole' she thought to herself.

John Mitchell who had identified himself as head R&D engineer began to speak. Mitchell began to go over each of the proposed projects in detail. Pepper had noticed that Tony Stark became bored quite quickly, and after the first project, he began to play a game on his cell phone. She was amazed that none of the people in the room had noticed that Anthony Stark really could have cared less about the presentation. She just found it hard to believe that she was the only one to have noticed Mr. Stark's flagrant disregard for the purpose of the meeting.

Pepper had flagged one of the projects while reading the detailed analysis of the project late last night. She had somehow found a mistake of the guidance algorithm used to project costs associated with the development of a proposed missile prototype. She had doubled checked her calculations so she was sure of what she had found. When Mitchell got to this particular project which as it turned out was the last project to be discussed, Pepper raised her hand after he had asked for questions on this project.

"Excuse me, Mr. Mitchell." Pepper spoke up as he nodded at her in recognition. "The calculations used in the guidance algorithm are incorrect." She said as she heard Claire suck in a quick breath of surprise. "The expenses associated with development of this prototype will be significantly higher as a result of the error."

The silence in the conference room was now deafening, and Pepper suddenly wondered if she had done the right thing in exposing the error.

She saw Mitchell cast a quick glance at Tony Stark who suddenly sat up straight in his chair, attentive for perhaps the first time since the meeting had started.

Pepper turned to look at Tony Stark who was now looking at her with mild disapproval.

"So tell me **Mrs**…." Tony began obviously annoyed.

"**Ms**. Potts." Pepper supplied him quickly intentionally ignoring his annoyance.

"So tell me, **Ms.** Potts, when was it that you became an expert on guidance algorithms?" he asked sharply as several of his engineers chuckled at his remark and he quickly glanced at them, silencing them immediately before turning his full attention back to Pepper.

"I am **not** an expert on guidance algorithms" she defended staring at him straight in the eyes, but feeling her cheeks start to light up in the beginnings of a blush. "I am, however, very competent in calculus. And the algorithm clearly contains an error."

Tony Stark quickly turned several pages in his notes before stopping on a particular page and staring at it for a few seconds. "Since we are on the last project here anyway." He began as he locked eyes with Pepper once more "I am calling an end to the meeting. Everyone is free to go except for Ms. Potts here."

Pepper felt a chill run up her spine as he asked her to remain with him. Claire immediately left her seat and walked to the front of the room and spoke quietly with Mr. Stark for a few seconds. Pepper knew that Claire had worked for Tony's father for many years and was close to Tony. Pepper suddenly had a bad feeling that she was somehow figuring prominently in their quiet discussion.

Claire turned away from Tony and returned to her seat, gathering her documents. As she stood up and turned to leave the room, she placed a reassuring hand on Pepper's shoulder and squeezed it tenderly, as she smiled discretely at Pepper before leaving the conference room.

Within a minute the conference room had emptied leaving only the two of them.

"Claire says you are new to SI." Tony said as he walked over and sat down on the table top next to her. "She also says that you are one smart girl."

Pepper couldn't help but glare up at him for the 'girl' remark suddenly finding it very hard to be calm. "I know my math." She replied coolly locking eyes with him.

"Yeah" he countered holding her gaze. "But you don't know squat about guidance algorithms." He said with what she could only describe as a smirk as he raised his voice slightly.

She frowned at him knowing that her temper at his arrogance was coming dangerously near the surface now. "That is correct, however I am very well studied in calculus and I can prove to you that there is an error in the calculations." She said raising her voice to match his.

He frowned back at her and spoke even louder his annoyance with her very evident now. "So let's have a wager here, then **Ms.** Potts." He said standing up quickly and turning to lean over the table in order to see her corrections to the formula. "If I'm right, then you agree to go out to dinner with me. And if you're right you…"

Pepper had always had a quiet confidence in her abilities, but Mr. Stark's attitude and increased volume was definitely starting to anger her. Only her parents were allowed to shout at her. She knew that she was right about the calculation. And she also knew that Stark Industries was not the only company who had offered her a job. She may be young, but she did have her principles. She quickly stood up to face him. "Ok if I'm right how about I get to do my job?" she shot back at him even louder than before, realizing too late that both of their voices were of the volume now that would exceed the soundproofing of the conference room. If Tony didn't fire her, then someone else surely would for yelling at the CEO.

He surprised her by actually smiling back at her…not a smirk but an honest smile. "Fair enough." He replied quietly pulling out his calculator as he leaned down near the table and began recalculating the formula.

After only a few seconds, Tony Stark stood back up and came face to face with her once again, their bodies less than two feet from one another.

"I guess you get to do your job, then." He said with a huff his anger now more apparent after realizing his mistake.

Pepper immediately went on the offensive. "I don't know Mr. Stark." She said anger flashing quickly into her eyes at his tone. "I may not want to keep a job where I am harassed by the CEO over finding a mistake which, by my calculations, would have cost SI over 20 million dollars. And since Stark Industries was the one who had courted me while I was still in college, and not the other way around, maybe it's time that I reconnected with the other companies who had offered me employment. Maybe their personnel policies work in favor of the employee who does their job correctly."

Tony Stark stood in front of her in rapt attention as she spoke. The expression on his face was one of total surprise. She suspected that no one had ever spoken to him like that before, being the spoiled brat he was.

As she reached down to gather her paperwork in her hands, she felt his fingers lightly squeeze her arm, and for a split second she wanted to stop moving and look at him, but her inner, proud self kept her body moving, as she gathered up her things, and pushed her chair in towards the table as she prepared to leave the conference room.

"Hey" he said softly, immediately releasing her arm "Where do you think you're going?"

She looked at him, seeing almost concern etched on his face. "To my office to gather my things and submit my resignation letter, of course."

She quickly turned towards the door, but before she could take a single step, Tony Stark had managed to quickly put himself between her and the door. She looked up at him challengingly.

"Just give me a few minutes to talk to you and then you can do whatever you want." He said a small, sincere smile breaking out on his face. "Deal?"

Pepper suddenly realized that at this particular moment in time, she was now talking to the real Tony Stark. "Deal." She replied looking him in the eyes for a few seconds in order to confirm his sincerity.

"I have a proposal for you." He began and she immediately frowned at him. "No, no, no! Not **that **kind of proposal. A real business proposal." He continued as the frown slowly faded from her face. "I'd like to offer you the position of PA for the CEO of Stark Industries."

Anger flashed immediately back into her eyes and she noticed that he actually took a half step back from her. "I have heard all of the rumors about you and your PAs, Mr. Stark." She said in a huff as she began walking to the door. "And here I believed that you had a real **business** proposition for me. I am not that kind of girl at all."

"Hold on! Wait a second!" he pleaded earnestly backing up slightly but managing to keep himself between her and the door. "Just hear me out."

Pepper stopped mid step and looked at him again.

"I need someone as my PA who is smart in math, particularly calculus, well organized, punctual, trustworthy, able to keep me on a schedule, and not afraid to tell me off when I need it, which considering me will probably be quite a lot." He said with a sincerity in his eyes that actually surprised her. He paused trying to gage her reaction and then he pressed on quickly. "The pay will be fantastic… bonuses, stock options, the works….all the benefits of an executive."

"And the downside to all that is, Mr. Stark?" she asked her face stony wanting to see if he could be honest with her.

"Long hours, lots of travel." He explained counting on his fingers like a small child "Putting up with me getting drunk and/or high, bringing women home at all hours of the day and night, and worst of all having to deal with me making a total ass of myself in public and in private quite frequently."

She stared at him in surprise. He actually seemed to be sincere and honest. The job offer sounded horrible. But at the same time it also sounded quite challenging. And despite of the odds being stacked quite heavily against her for success as his PA, she really did like challenges. She had wanted to learn some new languages and wanted to travel. But somehow dealing with a drunk, horny, and high Tony Stark didn't sound at all like it would be worth it.

"**And** I am actually starting to settle down a little now." He trying to downplay the negatives of the job as he read her face in order to tell if she was actually considering his proposition now. "I'm going to be 25 in another two months, so I am getting a **little** older and wiser."

She couldn't help but smile at that remark. "A **little **wiser, Mr. Stark?"

He smiled back at her visibly relaxing at her obvious tease. "OK maybe a **little** **bit** wiser, Ms. Potts." He replied quietly. "So what do you say? Just give the job a couple of months and see if you want to stay. If you don't, then you will have complete retreat rights back to accounting. Claire and Bernie would of course welcome you back with open arms." He explained quickly then added. "The trick is going to be getting Claire and Bernie to release you. But I can always turn the old Stark charm on them. It works every time." He said as he smiled warmly at her. "Except on you, of course Ms. Potts."

"Of course, Mr. Stark." She replied smiling back at him, as she paused for a moment in thought "OK, I agree to your terms for a 60 day trial as your PA."

"Fantastic!" he said cheerfully "I'm going to find Claire and Bernie now and let them know."

"Mr. Stark" she began catching his eye again "when will I start?"

"Is tomorrow too soon?" he asked his brow furrowing.

"That depends upon what Mr. Sharp and Claire have to say." She replied.

"Then tomorrow it is, Ms. Potts." He said triumphantly clapping his hands together. "I'll have Jarvis email you directions to my home office. See you at eight o'clock tomorrow morning."

She nodded at him in reply. She had heard about the house in Malibu that Tony had been building for the last two years. Apparently he had already moved in. He smiled at her then politely opened the door and ushered her out of the conference room. Once in the hallway, they each turned in different directions walking quickly away from each other.

As she walked back in to her office, some of her friends from accounting walked over and stood in her doorway obviously concerned for her. After all the SI rumor machine never slept, and everyone already seemed to know that she had been on a one-to-one meeting with the CEO, possibly not on good terms.

"Are you OK, Pepper?" Samantha asked in a worried tone.

"I'm not sure yet." Pepper answered with a tenuous smile. "I think I just need a little time to myself right now."

"We're here for you, if you need us." Claudette remarked as she slowly closed the door, leaving Pepper to her thoughts.

Pepper took an apple and orange out of her desk and began to eat them. She was getting quite hungry by now. She glanced at the time: 1:08 PM which was an hour later that she was use to eating lunch at.

She had just finished up the apple and orange when she heard a soft knock on her door. "Please come in." she replied throwing her apple core and orange rinds in her trash can.

"Hi Pepper" Bernie said with a big smile. "I hear you had a very interesting first meeting with the boss today."

"Yes sir, I did indeed." Pepper replied as Bernie sat down in a chair directly in front of her desk.

"Mr. Stark is well intended" he began to explain "but his methods are somewhat unorthodox when it comes to personnel. I just wanted to make sure that you were OK on his offer to a trial run as his PA for 60 days. If you're not OK with this, then I will push back at Tony. I have already spoken with Mr. Stane about it."

Pepper had the distinct feeling that Bernie was worried that Mr. Stark had somehow strong armed her into her decision. "Yes sir, I did agree to a 60 day trial as his PA with full retreat privileges back to Accounting if the job didn't work out for me."

"There will always be a place here for you in accounting." Bernie promised sincerely.

Pepper smiled warmly at him realizing that Bernie believed that the job as PA wouldn't work out for her. He had known Tony Stark his whole life and she suspected that Bernie thought that Tony's lifestyle and hers would not co-exist well. And she realized that Bernie was probably right. But then again she wouldn't know until she tried. "Thank you sir, I appreciate that very much." Pepper replied back to him with a sincere smile. She liked Bernie a lot. He took care of his people.

Bernie smiled back at her and stood up to leave. "Don't be surprised if Mr. Stane calls you into his office this afternoon." He said as a matter of fact, then he noticed the concerned look on her face "Don't be worried, you're not in any kind of trouble at all. Obadiah just wants to meet the person who stood Tony on his ear this morning." He explained with a wink.

"Thank you sir." Pepper replied not knowing what else to say.


	2. Chapter 2

Meeting Obadiah for the First Time

Pepper's office telephone rang just minutes after Bernie left her office. Pepper eyed the telephone set suspiciously as she noted that the display indicated the incoming telephone number as 'Private'. Obviously the caller did not want her to call them back. She picked up on the third ring.

"Virginia Potts" she answered quietly and professionally.

"Ms. Potts" a feminine voice confirmed in her handset "This is Melissa McCoy; Mr. Stane's secretary. Mr. Stane would like to meet with you in his office at 3:00 this afternoon."

Pepper knew by the formal tone of Melissa's voice that this meeting was not optional at all for her. "I will be there, thank you." Pepper politely replied.

"I know you are fairly new to SI. Do you need directions to Mr. Stane's office?" Melissa asked sounding only mildly concerned.

"I should be able to find it, thank you though." Pepper replied wanting to make sure that Melissa understood that she wasn't **that** new to SI.

"We will see you at 3:00, then." Melissa replied cheerfully. "Goodbye."

"Goodbye." Pepper repeated politely as she hung up and placed the handset back into its cradle. She stared at her telephone for a few seconds wondering why Mr. Stane would want to meet with her. But then again Bernie had warned her.

She had heard enough about Obadiah Stane to know that he was a cold business man with a no-nonsense attitude when it came to SI personnel. He was not well liked as an executive by most of the people that Pepper knew at SI. Some of her friends in accounting had told her that Mr. Stane in his title as COO was actually the one who ran Stark Industries, and not the current CEO, Tony Stark. But after seeing Tony Stark in action at the meeting this morning, Pepper was actually glad that someone other than Tony Stark was at the business helm of the company, she herself having just signed up for SI profit sharing in the payroll department only yesterday.

Not wanting to take a chance in being late for the meeting, Pepper left her office at exactly 2:45 for Mr. Stane's office which was located on the top floor of her building, deep within the executive suits that filled up the entire top floor. The elevator ride upstairs was uneventful and Pepper found herself thinking back to her earlier conversation with Tony Stark in the R&D conference room. She had to admit to herself that accepting his offer to be his PA on the spot was so out of character for her. She usually took the time to think out important decisions. She had asked herself repeatedly if Tony Stark, like his cologne, had somehow distracted her into making an unwise decision. So far she hadn't come up with an answer. But at least she had enough presence of mind to agree to a trial period of 60 days. But then again 60 days was more than enough time to regret a bad decision.

Quickly bringing her mind back to the present, she was more than just a little suspicious why it was that Mr. Stane wanted to meet with her this afternoon. Her instincts told her to proceed with caution around Mr. Stane. A redundant theme in the stories that surrounded Mr. Stane in the SI rumor mill indicated that he was not happy with Tony Stark being appointed to CEO. If Pepper was going to be working for Tony Stark directly, then maybe Mr. Stane would also harbor ill will towards her for accepting the job as Tony Stark's personal assistant.

She arrived on the top floor with 7 minutes to spare. The floor was arranged so that the private offices sat around the glass windowed lined perimeter, with the open space in the middle filled with stylized low-walled cubicles. It didn't take her long to figure out where Mr. Stane's office was located: she just followed the trail of expensive furniture. It eventually led to a huge mahogany desk with the name 'Melissa' in stylized script etched upon an expensive looking crystal name plate placed strategically on her desk leaving no doubt in anyone's mind who she was or who she worked for.

Melissa looked up expectantly at her when she walked up to her desk. "You must be Virginia Potts." Melissa said with practiced ease as she smiled in welcome "I'm Melissa." At that Melissa stood up and offered her hand in greeting to Pepper.

Pepper smiled at her and shook her hand warmly. "Yes, I am. And I am very pleased to meet you." Pepper knew that she would be coordinating with Melissa closely at least for the next 60 days so she intended to be as pleasant as possible. "But please call me Pepper."

Melissa released her hand and walked swiftly over to the set of large double wooden doors to her left. "Pepper, just a moment and I'll let Mr. Stane know that you are here."

Pepper watched as Melissa quietly knocked on the door, entering only after hearing a low voice behind the door. In less than 3 seconds, Melissa walked back out of the office. "Mr. Stane will see you now." She said with a smile as she held the door open for her.

"Thank you Melissa." Pepper politely replied as she walked toward the door and then into Mr. Stane's office. She heard the door quietly click closed behind her.

As Pepper continued walking towards the enormous mahogany desk near the windows, Stane stood up and walked around his desk slowly. As he got closer to her, he held his hand out in greeting. "Ms. Potts" he said as he shook her hand gently. "Please sit down." He requested as he motioned to one of two chairs placed in front of his desk.

"Thank you, Mr. Stane." Pepper replied politely sitting down in one chair as Stane walked back around his desk and sat back down heavily in his chair. Pepper had noticed how soft Mr. Stane's hands were, and quickly judged that he had probably never done what her Opa called 'an honest day's work' in his life.

"I've heard that you emptied out the R&D conference room this morning." Stane stated once seated, a small, crooked smile breaking out on his face as he carefully scanned her face waiting for her response.

"Actually it was Mr. Stark who emptied out the conference room, not I." she replied smiling back at him.

"That's my boy all right." Stane laughed ruefully as he looked at her. "He doesn't take too well to being proved wrong, especially in math, and most especially in a meeting in front of his engineers."

"My goal was to simply have the error corrected in the meeting, Mr. Stane." She replied formally. "Not to embarrass Mr. Stark." Pepper was not at all surprised that Mr. Stane immediately started their conversation on the offensive given his 'hard ass' reputation. Pepper was not one to be intimidated easily.

Stane looked at her in surprise for a split second, and then furrowed his brow at her as he began to speak again. "Tony is like a son to me, Ms. Potts." He began slowly as if concerned she somehow needed time to absorb the meaning behind his words. "I appreciate the fact that you were doing your job in the meeting this morning by pointing out the math error. Just next time try not to do it in front of an audience."

Pepper was confused at first with his response, but then quickly realized that Stane was not really concerned about Tony's feelings as much as he was any damage to SI that could be done as a result of Tony Stark's engineering skills being somehow tainted. Pepper continued to lock eyes with him, willing her face remain neutral. "Yes, sir." was her unemotional reply.

Stane's face lightened at her answer and he smiled tightly at her again as he spoke quietly to her. "Let me be very frank with you here, Ms. Potts. I did my best to talk Tony out of hiring you to be his PA, believing that your accounting talents would be wasted in becoming a glorified baby sitter for him. But he pushed back at me hard, and actually came up with some very sane and rational reasons for wanting you to be his PA." He paused looking intently at her, gauging her reaction to his words. "I know you are over 21 and evidently quite capable of taking care of your self. And I am sure you are well aware of his reputation with the ladies. But if you accept the position of PA to Tony, do you realize that you will be PA number 63 for him?" He frowned at her as if trying to make the large number of PAs a major point in their conversation.

Pepper let out a quick breath of surprise, not being able to help herself, as the number '63' actually sank in. "No, I did not." She answered honestly.

He stared at her, reading her facial expression as the realization of his words sank in to her, and Pepper could have sworn that she actually saw a fleeting look of sympathy cross his face. "I have to admit though; you **are** the first PA that he had actually **insisted** on having." He continued. "And not intending to sound sexist here at all, Ms. Potts, but you will also be the first PA for Tony whose IQ even comes close to his." He suddenly smiled a sincere smile at her. "And after speaking with Bernie and Claire this afternoon, you may even be able to give Tony a run for his money in the IQ department. I know Tony well enough to know how much he values intelligence in the people that work for him."

Pepper couldn't help but smile back at him in return for his left-handed compliment.

"I just want you make sure you have a clear understanding of what you will be in for being Tony's PA." he explained as he got up to move around his desk, sitting down on the front corner of his desk closest to her, his eyes now locked intently with hers. "Yes, Tony is a certified genius who is the very best weapons designer on the planet, but he is also very eccentric when it comes to interpersonal relationships." He patiently explained to her, crossing his arms in front of his chest as he looked down at her. "He is either hard at work in his lab, forgetting to eat or sleep most of the time when he is in 'invent' mode, or he is out on the town partying like there is no tomorrow and picking up any woman or women he wants to for a few hours of fun. He doesn't have a lot of close friends because he suffers from multiple trust issues and the resultant emotional trauma from the loss of his parents when he was 17. And he has a ton of pet peeves, one of the strangest of which is a strong aversion to being handed anything…and don't ask me why because I just don't know. He's extremely moody especially during holidays and around the anniversary of his parents' deaths."

Pepper nodded at him in understanding and he retuned her nod, drawing a deep breath in order to continue. "And without exception, the first 62 PAs have never lasted more than a month. Most of them filed sexual harassment lawsuits either before or after they quit or Tony fired them." Stane continued. Then Pepper noticed as Stane paused, a small smile played at the corner of his lips. "Tony's revolving door of PAs has been so bad that SI's legal and PR department's only Christmas wish every year is for Tony to find a PA that will stay with him since it would cut down their workload tremendously." He chuckled to himself as if this were somewhat of an inside joke.

His eyes suddenly became serious once again. "So what do you think, Ms. Potts?" he asked her point blank.

Pepper quickly took in a breath to steady herself, hoping her next words were the right ones to say to him. "I think, sir that I made a promise to Mr. Stark that I would give him a 60 day trial period to see if the PA job was a good fit for me **and **him, of course." Pepper said slowly as Stane's eyebrows shot up on his face. She quickly added. "And I don't go back on my promises." She shifted slightly in her seat and continued to look him in the eye noting the surprised, almost amused look in his eyes at her words. "But I do appreciate the fact that I have retreat rights to SI Accounting if the PA job doesn't work out."

Stane unfolded his arms placing both hands on his knees. "Bernie was not happy at all when Tony called him today telling him that you were going to be his new PA." Stane said his face now serious again. "Bernie called me immediately after he got off the phone with Tony to formally protest and ask for my help in talking Tony out of hiring you away from him. And Bernie has never ever asked me to involve myself with any personnel matter in the 35 years I have known the man." he continued looking at Pepper with a hint of respect on his face. "So of course we will honor your retreat request when the time comes."

Pepper thought it odd that Stane had used 'when the time comes'. She knew right then that Stane definitely didn't believe that she would make it to the 60 day mark as PA for Tony. And in a weird, irrational sort of way those last four words immediately angered her. Ever since she was a little girl, Pepper had never liked anyone telling her that she wouldn't or couldn't do something that appeared to be beyond her abilities. She always took great pleasure in proving them wrong. She also took a great deal of pride in her 'poker face' when dealing with 'difficult' people a category which Mr. Stane was definitely in. She would never let him know that his words had literally thrown down the gauntlet to her. "Thank you, sir." She replied, her face as serene and composed as she could make it.

He stared at her for a few seconds actually trying to figure out if she was sincere or not. Somehow satisfied with her answer, he then stood up quickly reaching out to shake her hand again as she stood also. "Welcome to the Stark Industries Executive Management team, Ms. Potts." He said formally as they shook hands.

"Thank you, Mr. Stane." Pepper replied politely.

"When do you start?" he quizzed her still holding onto her hand.

"Tomorrow morning at 8:00, sir." Pepper said as he finally released her hand.

"Well, good luck then." He said with a smile before walking her towards the double doors, opening them up for her, and then walking outside his office to stand by Melissa's desk. Melissa stood up and smiled broadly at Pepper. "Melissa will help you with anything you need help with, won't you Melissa?"

"Yes sir, Mr. Stane." Melissa replied quickly looking at Pepper "Anything you want or need to get you set up in your new office, just let me know."

"Actually Mr. Stark wants me to report to his home office tomorrow." Pepper replied causing Stane to raise his eyebrows once more. "But when it's time to set up my office here, I will be happy to take you up on your offer of help." She replied pleasantly smiling broadly at Melissa.

"Tony hasn't even let **me** set foot in that mansion of his yet." Stane remarked, unconsciously rubbing his hand through his beard. "He's been working on it for so long, I wasn't even sure if even he was ever going to move into it. Looks like you'll get to see it before I do, Ms. Potts."

Pepper smiled at him just before Stane turned away and walked back into his office, quickly closing the doors behind him.

"Good luck, Pepper." Melissa called out to her as she waved good bye to her.

The trip back down to her office took longer than the trip up because of time of day and the fact that many of the SI employees left work at this time. When she finally made her way back to her office, she found Claire sitting in her guest chair apparently waiting on her to return.

"You didn't let Obadiah scare you, did you?" Claire teased as Pepper moved to sit down in her chair.

Pepper immediately noticed the cardboard moving boxes pre-addressed with Mr. Stark's Malibu mansion's address on them stacked neatly in the corner of her office and a brand new Blackberry with Bluetooth in the middle of her desk with a note under them addressed to 'Ms. Potts'.

"No ma'am." Pepper answered with a small smile looking up a Claire. She reminded her of her Oma so much that Pepper always enjoyed being around Claire. She was definitely going to miss working for her.

"Tony came by while you were out and I let him in your office." She explained "He said he wanted to drop off some things you would need for tomorrow tonight before you left work. But I suspect he really just wanted to talk to you. He seems to like you a lot already."

"Mrs. Borden!" Pepper exclaimed feeling heat rise to her face "Why would you say that? I'm just his new PA, that's all."

Claire quickly stood up and walked over to the door closing it quietly. She returned back to her chair quickly, her eyes now serious and her voice sincere. "I've known Tony his whole life. And I know that Tony is smart enough to appreciate having a strong woman in his life, that's all." Claire replied with a smile.

"You're making it sound like we're getting married or something." Pepper replied without thinking, immediately regretting using the 'm' word at all.

Claire's face seemed to brighten even more. "You just never know!" she said with a laugh. "Lots of marriages begin at work." She winked at Pepper and began to laugh and Pepper laughed quietly with her very glad now that Claire had closed the door. "In spite of all of the awful rumors you have heard about him, Tony's a good man at heart. And at this time in his life, he is in desperate need of some good role models in his age group, you being one of those good role models of course!"

"You've thought this out, haven't you Claire?!" Pepper replied not be able to stop herself from blushing slightly.

"You bet I have!" She teased. "But enough of this sentimental chit-chat. The whole office is taking you out to dinner right after work tonight in order to celebrate your promotion, so just make sure you get packed up early." She instructed as she looked at the clock on the wall noting the time "Just leave your work on top of your desk and I will redistribute it tomorrow. We certainly know where to find you if we have any questions."

Pepper nodded as the two women smiled at each other, fully understanding one another.

"You know what I find really strange?" Pepper confided as Claire shook her head, encouraging her to continue. "Mr. Stane is so sure that I won't last 60 days with Mr. Stark, and that I will retreat back to accounting. And here you are giving me a going away dinner to celebrate my promotion."

"Well dear" Claire replied quickly "Mr. Stane doesn't know everything, now does he?"

Pepper shook her head and laughed. "No, ma'am, he doesn't." she agreed.

Claire stood up and walked towards the door. "Remember, dinner is at 5:30 and we are taking you to Duke's."

Duke's was one of Pepper's favorite restaurants. "I'll meet you at Duke's at 5:30 then." Pepper acknowledged getting up out of her chair and walking towards the door in order to see her out. She quickly pulled Claire into a big hug. "And thanks so much for everything, Claire." She said sincerely, adding quickly "And if this job doesn't work out, you know I'll be back here with you again."

"I have a feeling you aren't coming back to accounting, Pepper." Claire replied with a smile and a wink.

Pepper couldn't quite explain what she felt as Claire left her office, closing the door behind her. For the first time since the meeting this morning, she felt a confidence in her decision to take the PA job. She sat back down at her desk and stared down at the Blackberry and Bluetooth. She moved them to one side as she picked up the note to read it. In blocky draftsman script it read:

'Ms. Potts

You can just throw your stuff into these boxes and I'll have them hand carried to your office in my Malibu home by tomorrow morning.

The Blackberry is yours. Speed dial 2 is programmed to dial Jarvis, my AI. Jarvis runs the house for me. You will need to call him when you get home tonight so he can provide you with directions and security clearances that you will need tomorrow to get to my house.

And, of course, speed dial 1 is ME, just in case you need to call me with any questions.

See you tomorrow at 8:00AM sharp.

AES'

Pepper smiled at the note and folded it neatly in half as she packed it, along with the Blackberry and Bluetooth, away in her purse. She was suddenly looking forward to tomorrow morning.


	3. Chapter 3

**Most of the characters in this story belong to Marvel Comics and whoever else has current legal ownership of Iron Man at the moment. No infringement on any corporate, business, or individual's rights is intended in any way. This story is not being written for profit, just for enjoyment.**

**Meeting Jarvis and the Bots for the First Time**

That same evening about ten o'clock Pepper picked up the Blackberry and turned it on. On the outside, the cell phone looked like a regular Blackberry, but once she powered it on, she realized immediately that this was no assembly line model. Someone, most likely Tony Stark, had made numerous changes to the phone's operating system. Pepper was fairly tech savvy and she knew that the features on this phone were well beyond current market technology. The aps were advanced, but intuitive. After working with the phone for a few minutes, she actually wondered why it was that Stark Industries did not manufacture cell phones. Definitely a question for Mr. Stark later. Once she felt comfortable with the operation of her cell phone, she turned on the Bluetooth and adjusted it to fit her left ear. It too looked ordinary, but she highly suspected that the broadcast signal had been upgraded to provide a secure, hack-free link to the Blackberry which current assembly line models did not have.

She decided to call Jarvis before she took a shower and quickly punched in '2'on the speed dial.

"Ms. Potts" a distinctively British accented voice greeted her. "So good of you to have called."

"Thank you…Mr. Jarvis." She replied warily not knowing his title exactly. Tony had called him his 'AI' in his note, but Stark Industries lived and breathed acronyms, and she wasn't exactly sure what 'AI' really meant in this situation.

"Please, madam" Jarvis replied pleasantly "'Jarvis' will do just splendidly."

Jarvis had impeccable manners, she had to admit that. "Well then Jarvis, please call me Pepper."

"As much as I would like to, madam, I cannot." Jarvis explained quietly "I must follow protocol and address you as Ms. Potts, if that is agreeable with you."

Pepper realized now that Jarvis's behavior was very much like a butler's. She decided to just follow along. "Ms. Potts is fine, Jarvis. Thank you."

"Very well, madam." Jarvis acknowledged politely "I have now analyzed your voice pattern and have updated your cell phone with voice recognition protocols for security. Only you and Mr. Stark will be allowed to use your cell phone now."

Her suspicions about her cell phone being modified and non-standard were now confirmed. "Thank you, Jarvis." She replied, not really knowing what else to say.

"My pleasure, madam. I am here to serve," Jarvis responded "My records indicate that you are the owner of a Honda Civic SE with California plates. 2ZB3286."

Somehow Pepper was not surprised that Jarvis knew this information. "Yes, I am".

"I am assuming that you will drive this vehicle tomorrow morning to travel to the Stark Malibu mansion, Ms. Potts." Jarvis surmised.

"That is correct, Jarvis." She replied, curious to know what Jarvis was up to.

"I will upload this information into our mansion security system immediately so you will be allowed to pass through both security gates tomorrow morning, madam." He started "And I will provide you turn by turn instructions from your apartment to the mansion through your Blackberry. All you need do is to push the map icon on the display and say the word 'Ready'."

"Thank you so much, Jarvis." She said with a smile, impressed with Jarvis' efficiency.

"You are quite welcome, Ms. Potts." He replied with a flourish "I shall await your arrival in the morning."

"I will be there a little before 8 o'clock." She said wanting to make sure Jarvis knew what time she was supposed to be there.

"Very well, madam." Jarvis said and promptly ended the call.

Pepper had always admired efficiency in people. And Jarvis appeared to be quite efficient. She had a feeling she was going to like working with him.

The next morning she arrived at the mansion even earlier than she had expected with Jarvis giving her not only turn-by-turn directions, but rerouting her around not one, but two wrecks with flawless accuracy. She knew that Stark tech was advanced, but Pepper somehow had the feeling that Jarvis had tapped into SI's security satellites as he gave her detailed accounts of the accidents and her alternate routing. As she slowly drove past the mansion's second security gate, which like the first one had opened automatically for her as she approached, Jarvis directed her to drive onto the circle drive at the front of the mansion and to park under the _porte cochere_. As she got out and looked around, she could tell that the landscaping was a very recent addition to the mansion, as she admired the tall California Fan palms which framed the front of the massive home. These palms were at least 50 feet tall and each of them no doubt had cost a small fortune.

She had dressed smartly for her first day at work, not knowing exactly how casual or how formal to dress. She wore a navy blue business suit with her usual heels. Pepper knew from previous experience in the business environment that personal height was sometimes an advantage. And she knew from her meeting with Mr. Stark yesterday that he wasn't tall, so she figured that being on equal footing with him in a literal sense might help with her transition to PA.

As she approached the front door, the door opened before she reached it. She had been expecting Jarvis to meet her as she quickly looked inside but could see no one at or near the door. She cautiously walked inside the house peering all around her, still not able to see any one inside the house. Once she was completely inside, the door began to slowly close. Pepper had to now control her strong urge to flee the house before the door closed all the way.

Suddenly a very British voice surrounded her. "Welcome to the Stark Malibu Mansion, Ms. Potts. I must say that it is a distinct pleasure to see you in person."

Pepper did her best not to jump too much at the sound of Jarvis' voice, but the door opening and closing by itself had caused her to be just a little nervous. "Thank….thank you Jarvis." She quickly replied feeling her face start to light up in a blush at being caught off guard.

"Mr. Hogan delivered your boxes to your office here late last night as per Mr. Stark's orders." Jarvis continued without missing a beat. "If you would like to place your briefcase and other personal items in your office now, I would be delighted to direct you to your office."

Pepper couldn't help but look around her as if trying to find the source of his voice. She tried her best to be discrete. At first she only noticed the lack of furnishings in the large expanse of what she believed was a living area. But scanning the room a second time she was able to spot the security cameras placed strategically yet inconspicuously all around the area. "That would be great…Jarvis. Thank you." She hesitated a second before asking "Perhaps you could show me your office, later Jarvis? I would really like to meet you in person."

"I don't have an office like yours, Ms. Potts." Jarvis replied "And as for meeting me in person, I'm afraid that is impossible for you to do."

"Why is that, Jarvis?" She asked, her curiosity now peeked when she swore she could detect a trace of almost sadness in his voice at his admissions.

"Because I am not a person, Ms. Potts." He replied politely. "Master Stark created me to oversee, protect, and control Stark Mansion. I am who I am, the artificial intelligence known as Jarvis."

Pepper let his words sink in for a few seconds. "Well then, Jarvis." She began smiling towards the nearest camera. "It's good to meet you, too."

"Splendid" Jarvis replied with the cheerful tone returning to his voice once again. "I am sending Dummy and Butterfingers to assist you with unpacking."

Pepper suddenly heard the whir of gyros and wheels against the marble floors behind her and quickly turned around to see two robots rolling quickly towards her. She watched them carefully as they stopped about three feet from her.

"The bot on your left is Dummy, and the bot on your right is Butterfingers, Ms. Potts." Jarvis said in explanation. "They assist Mr. Stark in his workshop and they are now programmed to assist you with anything that you need help with such as carrying heavy boxes."

Pepper looked at each of the bots in turn. She gingerly stepped forward and patted them each on top of their cameras, what she assumed was their 'head' in turn. "Nice to meet you Dummy, and nice you meet you too, Butterfingers." As she stepped back from them, Pepper heard each of the bots beep and whine a very distinctive string of electronic noises at her in return.

"Ms. Potts." Jarvis translated "Both Dummy and Butterfingers are pleased to make your acquaintance also. If you would be so kind to follow them to the elevator, they will lead you to your office and help you with your boxes."

"Thank you Jarvis." She replied as the bots immediately turned and wheeled away toward the back of the house towards what Pepper assumed was the service elevator. Considering the size and weight of the bots there was no way the three of them were fitting inside a standard elevator.

The ride up to the second level was quiet. Pepper had always had the ability to strike up a conversation with just about anyone, but she couldn't quite figure out how to make robot small talk….at least not yet. Once the elevator doors opened, Dummy and Butterfingers rolled quickly down the open walkway which overlooked the living area, stopping at the third door on the right. Dummy quickly opened the door for her and waited for her as she stepped into her new office. She looked around and noticed that her boxes were neatly stacked along the wall just inside the door. And other than her boxes, a large modern looking glass and chrome desk with two chrome chairs, nothing else at all was to be found in the large room.

"We were waiting on your approval for adding anything to your office, Ms. Potts." Jarvis explained as Pepper stared at the desk and chairs. "Mr. Stark wanted you to personally select your furnishings. He also said that if the desk and chairs are not to your satisfaction, we can replace them with whatever style you wish."

Pepper looked up at the corner of the room near the ceiling and immediately spotted Jarvis' camera.

"The desk and chairs are fine, Jarvis." She replied walking towards the floor to ceiling windows behind her desk.

From her windows she could see miles of blue ocean meeting a rock strewn beach that appeared to be the private beach for the Stark mansion. The view was indeed spectacular and she instantly fell in love with her office because of the view. Directly below her windows was a huge swimming pool that looked like it had just been recently installed. She noted that there was a total absence of any landscaping which also confirmed that the newness of the mansion.

Even though she had been raised in the mountains of northern Arizona, Pepper was, at heart, a water baby. She had been a member of her high school swim and diving team and made frequent trips to the lakes and rivers that were close to her home growing up. But in her mind nothing would ever match the thrill of swimming in the ocean. Being near the ocean was one of the reasons why she applied to UCLA as an undergraduate. She had even bought a surfboard when she was still a freshman, and had become a fairly competent surfer. Her apartment was only two blocks from the beach and she would find herself on the beach either before or after work and every weekend. To have an office overlooking the beach was more that she could have hoped for. She smiled as she continued to stare out the window, watching the sea gulls soar above the waves.

"The view **is** quite spectacular, Ms. Potts." Jarvis noted.

Pepper suddenly realized that Jarvis could probably see the reflection of her huge smile from the window glass. "It is indeed Jarvis." She agreed wholeheartedly.

Behind her she heard the bots roll into her office. She turned around to find Dummy pointing his mechanical arm towards a box as he chirped at her. "Thank you, Dummy." She said to the bot "You can put that one on my desk for me."

Dummy happily obliged and Pepper opened the box and began putting her office supplies into her desk. With Dummy and Butterfingers' help they were done quickly with only one minor mishap when Dummy dropped and broke her desk lamp.

"It's OK Dummy." Pepper said patting the bot on the head in an effort to console the now whining robot. "It was an old lamp anyway."

Dummy immediately beeped pathetically, then chirped once, picking up the lamp and rolling out of her office at a high rate of speed. "Where is he going?" Pepper asked, amazed at the speed at which he moved.

"Dummy is off to repair your lamp, Ms. Potts." Jarvis remarked.

Now finished with unpacking, she and Butterfingers slowly made their way down the walkway back towards the elevator. As they walked Pepper again noted the bareness of the mansion as she looked around and down at the living area. "So Jarvis" she began, curious now "either you have just moved in or someone's forgotten about decorating."

"Mr. Stark has been busy finishing up his workshop and garage area ahead of the rest of the mansion." Jarvis explained patiently. "It is true that the mansion is definitely lacking home décor. But I believe that Mr. Stark is hopeful that you would help him in that endeavor."

Pepper shook her head at the thought of 'home decorator' being added on to the job description without her knowledge. "So in the meantime, does Mr. Stark eat and sleep in his workshop then?" Pepper teased waiting on Jarvis to reply, then realizing with the resulting silence that the AI may not pick up on her intended humor.

"Yes he does, madam." Jarvis replied simply after a few seconds. "Mr. Stark has requested that you join him in his workshop now that you are finished moving into your office."

As she and Butterfingers entered the elevator and the doors slid shut behind them, the elevator display suddenly illuminated the 'S1' icon and the elevator began to move slowly downward. "So Jarvis, does Mr. Stark's PAs spend a lot of their time in his workshop?" she asked now rethinking her choice of clothes for today.

"Not at all, madam." Jarvis replied firmly "To my knowledge you are the first Personal Assistant that he has ever allowed into his workshop."

Pepper suddenly didn't know how to respond to that. The opening of the elevator doors thankfully saved her from making a response. As the doors opened, the loud music that rumbled within the workshop suddenly lowered in volume. Pepper recognized the song playing as 'Sanitarium' by Metallica. Smiling to herself, somehow she felt the song did fit the occasion.

As she walked out into the workshop she saw Dummy huddled over her lamp now laying in pieces on a work table, a MIG welder sitting next to the table. She watched as Butterfingers rolled over to join Dummy, presumably to help him reassemble her lamp.

Pepper continued to walk slowly past Dummy and Butterfingers, her heels tapping a staccato beat on the clean concrete floor. She had only walked about 20 feet when she saw a brand new white Audi TT Coupe still with dealer's tags, and two oil stained, tattered, jean clad legs sticking out of the driver's door.

"You made it Ms. Potts." Came the muffled voice of Tony Stark out of the driver's door. "Dammit, I left the snap ring pliers' on the worktable." He mumbled quietly to himself.

Pepper turned and walked to his worktable picking up the pliers without thinking, being very familiar with tools from being raised on a ranch, and carried them back to the Audi with her. She quickly shoved her hand with pliers in them inside the Audi next to Tony. "Are these what you need, Mr. Stark?"

As she asked him the question, she suddenly remembered Mr. Stane's words of warning about Tony Stark not liking anything handed to him and she suddenly cringed, realizing her mistake. But it was too late to do anything about it now. She listened quietly as he mumbled something unintelligible and felt him slowly take the pliers out of her hand.

"Thank you Ms. Potts." came the formal, muffled reply.

She breathed a sigh of relief, as she stepped back and waited for him to finish working under the driver's side dashboard. She didn't know whether to be happy that he had actually taken something from her that she had handed him, or be worried about the repercussions of her forgetfulness. Pepper looked around as she waited for him to finish, and noticed many small, empty SI boxes and rolls of wire strewn about the floor around the driver's door. What ever he was doing under the dash obviously involved copious amounts of Stark tech.

"That's got it!" He suddenly announced happily, slowly extracting himself out from the floorboard of the car and pulling out a small bag full of tools with him. "Jarvis, fire her up."

He rose to his feet then turned quickly in order to stick his head once again back into the car, staring intently at the instrument cluster. Pepper now had the opportunity to look him over carefully. Tony was wearing a black t-shirt which was well worn, and full of holes. The shirt actually looked in worse shape than the jeans. He had streaks of what looked to be engine grease smeared on both arms along with one cheek. Pepper suddenly found herself having to resist trying to wipe off the grease on this cheek with her thumb.

The Audi's engine suddenly roared to life. "Telemetry coming in now, sir. I will proceed with data uploads immediately. Estimated completion time is five minutes forty-three seconds, sir."

"Very good, J" he replied as Jarvis turned the Audi's engine off. Tony turned to look at her as he spoke "Let me know when you're done so **we** can take a test drive."

Pepper's curiosity was peeked again. "Test drive for your new car?" she asked.

"Nope" he countered staring at her intently "Test drive for **your** new car." He corrected firmly immediately turning and walking quickly over to his work table, setting the tool bag on the table, and grabbing a cloth to wipe his hands on. "This TT Coupe is the closest thing Audi has to your Civic."

Pepper followed him to his work table and stopped next to it staring at him intently. "I don't need a new car, Mr. Stark. My Honda is just fine."

He turned his head to lock eyes with her and regarded her for a moment before he began to speak. "Ms. Potts, just consider this your company car." Tony said throwing the cloth down on his table haphazardly "Remember the perks that I spoke to you about yesterday…well this car is one of them." He then smiled crookedly at her. "And besides that, the PA for the CEO of Stark Industries will absolutely **not** be seen in public driving a Honda Civic. That would be bad for **my** image."

Pepper held his eyes for a moment still very much resistant to the idea of him getting her a car on her first day at work. Noticing the twinkle of what she thought was mischief in his bourbon eyes, she began trying to figure out what he was really up to. "There is absolutely nothing at all wrong at all with the image my Honda projects." She defended. "It is a very business-like car."

"Ah, come on Ms. Potts." He pleaded noting her defensive stance "I have made some really cool security upgrades to the car. You've got to at least check them out before you decide you don't want to drive the Coupe."

"Please don't tell me that you've added lasers and rocket launchers as extra security for the car."

She teased back, rolling her eyes for good measure at the thought of getting past traffic jams by simply blasting her way through.

"No, but the rocket launchers idea **is **a good one." He said closing his eyes in thought briefly "Jarvis, be sure to include rocket launchers in the next upgrade."

"Yes, Mr. Stark." Jarvis obediently agreed.

"You **can't** be serious." Pepper warned, now fully aware of what teasing the world's foremost weapons designer could get you and she began following behind Tony as he walked quickly towards a huge, glass-enclosed computer main frame room located to one side of the huge workshop.

"When it comes to security" Jarvis stated calmly as they walked "Mr. Stark is always serious."

"Oh god." Pepper muttered under her breath as she thought she caught a fleeting glimpse of a smile on Tony's face.

Tony punched in a code on the keypad located just outside of the door and it slid open with a 'whoosh'.

He then walked over to a workstation mounted in one of the equipment bays and began typing onto the keyboard as Pepper followed him into the cold room.

As Tony continued to type, Pepper took the time to look around, impressed by the shear size and complexity of the equipment set up within the room.

"Ms. Potts" Jarvis said quietly as if speaking only to her. "Per our earlier discussion, I now welcome you to **my** office."

Pepper smiled up at one of these security cameras realizing that somehow Tony had managed to program a sense of humor into Jarvis. "Very **cool,** Jarvis." She had hoped Jarvis would understand her double meaning.

"Thank you, and yes it is, Ms. Potts." Jarvis replied as Pepper chuckled softly at his response.

Tony quickly glanced at Pepper with what she thought was curiosity about her and Jarvis' conversation. "Take a look at that J, run some test scenarios, and let me know later what you think." Tony said as he finished typing in code. He turned to leave the room with Pepper once again hot on his heels grateful to be leaving the cold room.

As they walked out of the main frame room, they suddenly heard a crash which sounded like it had come from Dummy's work table. Even knowing Dummy for the short amount of time that she had, the thought had already occurred to Pepper that letting the bot repair her lamp may not have been a wise idea.

Tony immediately turned and walked quickly towards the noise.

When they arrived at the table, Pepper couldn't help herself but laugh at the sight. Dummy had managed to weld the lamp back together all right, but in the process the bot had added a few extra parts. Her lamp now resembled more of an abstract piece of art than a lamp.

"Dummy" Tony scolded "what have you done now?"

"He is attempting to repair Ms. Pott's desk lamp that he accidentally damaged while helping to set up Ms. Pott's office, sir."

Pepper saw a small flash of anger in Tony's eyes and she moved quickly to stand between Tony and Dummy, placing her hand gently on Tony's chest. He froze immediately at her touch looking down at her hand thoughtfully. She heard him sigh softly.

"Please don't be angry with Dummy." She pleaded quietly "It really was an accident." She quickly removed her hand from his chest and he looked up at her, his bourbon eyes locking with her blue ones briefly. She reached across him to pick up the newly repaired lamp. "And I kinda like what you did with the lamp, Dummy. It sorta goes with my desk now."

Dummy clicked and beeped, suddenly proud of his repair job.

"I believe Ms. Potts is correct, sir." Jarvis agreed formally.

It was Tony's turn to roll his eyes. "Ms. Potts" he began, as she sat the lamp back down on the table and turned to face him again. "Here you've been my PA for less than ninety minutes, and I already have the distinct feeling that my entire staff now likes you better than me."

At that point Dummy started to beep and whir noisily as Butterfingers quickly laid his heavy pincer on top of Dummy's head as if to silence him and keep him out of even more trouble. Dummy immediately began trying to remove Butterfingers' pincer, their child-like antics drawing a small laugh from Pepper.

"I must agree with Dummy, Ms. Potts is** indeed **quite likeable, sir." Jarvis confirmed, earning Pepper a small smile from Tony.

"I do believe you still owe me a test drive, Mr. Stark." She said as she giggled at the two bots now frozen in place, their pincers still entangled. She was doing her best now to distract Tony from being angry at Dummy. She had also realized that in the less than ninety minutes she had been working with Jarvis and the bots, she had found them to be quite 'likeable' too.

Tony cocked his head slightly and she realized that he somehow knew exactly what she was attempting to do by distracting him. "I'll deal with you two later." He said glancing back at them, a small smile now on his face as the bots began to move again. "Make sure Ms. Potts' lamp gets back into her office safe and sound."

Dummy and Butterfingers both beeped at his words as they set about finishing the repairs on the lamp.

She followed Tony as he walked back to stand in front of Audi TT Coupe. Tony shot her a quick glance and then immediately walked up to the driver's door and sat down in the driver's seat, pulling the door closed behind him.

She smiled to herself as she walked slowly around the car, opened up the door, and sat down in the passenger's seat, pulling the door closed behind her. She glanced over at Tony who was busy making adjustments to the stereo system. She quickly put the seat belt on, pulling it securely onto her hips.

"Uploads now complete, Mr. Stark." Jarvis' voice reported through the car's speakers.

"Good." He replied putting on his seat belt. "Is Ms. Potts' voice recognition downloaded, J?"

"Of course, sir." The AI replied as Tony put the car into reverse backing it up quickly.

"Good, 'cause she's driving home." He said with a smile putting the car into first gear, squealing the tires on the new concrete as they accelerated up the ramp leading to the outside.


	4. Chapter 4

**Most of the characters in this story belong to Marvel Comics and whoever else has current legal ownership of Iron Man at the moment. No infringement on any corporate, business, or individual's rights is intended in any way. This story is not being written for profit, just for enjoyment.**

**Meeting Happy for the First Time**

About one o'clock on the afternoon of her first day as Tony Stark's PA, Tony walked into her Malibu mansion office and laid a large laptop case on top of her desk.

"Here's your laptop, Ms. Potts." He told her as she quickly unzipped the case placing the black laptop on her desk and sliding the black leather case aside.

She was immediately puzzled at not seeing any type of brand insignia anywhere on the computer. "Mr. Stark" she began "What brand of computer is this?"

"My brand." He answered curtly "You really don't expect the CEO of Stark Industries to buy someone else's computer, do you?" He reached down around her and powered the computer on, visibly impatient with her question.

She narrowed her eyes at him, assessing his impatience with her as the laptop booted up. Yes, in the five hours and twenty-three minutes she had been working for him she had realized that one character trait that Tony Stark possessed in spades was impatience. Of course there was the expected rich brat impatience at simply just not getting his way immediately if not sooner. But she could also now see that a fair amount of his impatience was simply the result of his mind working so much faster than every one else's around him. She had the feeling that he was just tired of waiting on everyone to catch up to his thoughts and ideas.

After their 'test drive' of the Audi TT Coupe this morning, Tony had driven them to hole-in-the-wall taqueria near one of the public beaches in Malibu. He had offered to buy her breakfast at the open air café, which had surprised her a little. But what had really surprised her was that he had ordered six huge breakfast tacos for himself. He had paid for their $20 meal with a $100 bill and had the cashier keep the change. At first she suspected that his refusal to accept his change was due in part to his refusal to let others hand him things, but after hearing the conversation he had with the employees of the taqueria in fluent Spanish, Pepper also suspected that Tony had known them for a long time and was perhaps just trying to be nice to them.

Pepper had remembered Claire telling her that Tony was a good man at heart and she was starting to see a little of that for herself already in between all of his bravado and snark. As they sat at an old wooden table overlooking the beach and far away from everyone else, they talked about his current and future projects. Pepper was quick to understand most of the technical terms he was throwing into their conversation and she asked a lot of questions about terms she was unfamiliar with. Tony had wolfed down all six of his tacos within minutes after they sat down and Pepper had thought back to what Mr. Stane had told her about Tony forgetting to eat while he worked.

Suddenly back in the present, Pepper made a mental note to include meal and snack breaks into his work schedule which would be one of the first things she intended to take a look at on her new laptop.

"Put your right thumb on this pad." He directed her as she complied with his instructions. Jarvis had scanned both of her hands when they had returned from their 'test' drive and, in his usual efficient form, had already uploaded her fingerprints into the mansion's elaborate security system." You will also need to speak into the laptop just like you did with your Audi in order for you to be allowed security access into your laptop."

She looked at him and was now able to make out a faint twinkle in his eyes as he asked her to speak into the laptop. She was already very much aware of what that twinkle could mean for her. He had teased her repeatedly about her nickname during their drive.

"Pepper Potts" she said as she laid her right thumb on the small touch pad next to the larger one.

Suddenly the laptop came to life and beeped twice at her in confirmation. As the machine finished booting up, Pepper could now see the background graphic of hundreds of peppers of all shapes, sizes, and colors on the screen.

"I thought it would make you feel right at home, Ms. Potts." Tony teased, leaning his head down in order to look both at the screen and at her face wanting to make sure that he caught her reaction.

"Ha, ha." She said looking over at him disdainfully as he snickered under his breath. "I should have never told you my nickname."

"You didn't." he replied with a knowing smile "I pried it out of Claire when I spoke with her yesterday."

"That's cheating, Mr. Stark." She accused.

"Not at all, Ms. Potts." He countered walking around her desk and pulling one of her chairs over next to hers. "Pull up my schedule so I can tell you which meetings I will be skipping."

"Skipping, Mr. Stark? She countered glancing at him curiously "I thought it was part of my job description to keep you on a schedule."

"Yeah" he responded lazily "but on **my** schedule, not some else's."

"Mr. Stark" she began turning to stare at him intently "Until I completely understand the full nature of your scheduled meetings, I'm afraid that you cannot skip any of them."

Tony narrowed his eyes at her in a silent challenge. "Ms. Potts" he said his voice low and serious "Let's get one thing clear here….I **am** your boss. So if I want to skip a meeting then you will just simply have to reschedule it for me."

They continued to lock eyes with one another for almost a minute, neither one of them eager to give in or give up. Finally with a shrug of his shoulders, he silently gave in to her "OK, then." He sadly said in defeat. "Click on each of the meetings and you can read up on them if you want to, but it's still up to me which meetings I decide to skip."

"Why of course, Mr. Stark." She agreed as he raised his eyebrows in surprise. He looked at her with curiosity at her sudden acquiescence and Pepper could tell that he was now trying his best to figure out her motives. After a few seconds of practiced silence she spoke "We can then agree **together** which meetings that I will reschedule for you." She couldn't help but let a small smile tug at the corner of her mouth.

Tony's mouth dropped open slightly knowing he had just been had big time as she continued smiling at him enigmatically. "First things first, Ms. Potts. We need to get some furniture in here, and so your official first assignment as the PA to the CEO of Stark Industries will be to decorate the mansion." he said reaching down and taking both her elbows in his hands and pulling her up quickly to stand with him.

She couldn't help but quietly gasp at his unexpected touch. It felt as though a static charge had just passed between them. She noticed the surprised look in his eyes as if he had felt it too. She quickly cleared her throat trying to clear her head of the feeling. "You've got to be kidding." She said sarcastically suddenly remembering her earlier conversation with Jarvis as he quickly let go of her and stepped back from her slightly.

"Come onnnnn." He actually whined at her "take a look around you. The mansion is practically empty." he explained as he smiled almost shyly at her, then he quickly walked away from her to look out of her office window and stare at the ocean. "I'm good at setting up labs, workshops, and computer equipment rooms, but not so good with living areas. I had Jarvis order all of the appliances for the kitchen and laundry room, but other than that, the rest of the mansion is bare."

"I **did** notice that, Mr. Stark." She noted as he stole a quick glance at her and then turned his head back to stare out the window.

Pepper realized that he had probably had never shopped for furniture or furnishings in his life given that this mansion was actually the first home he had built for himself. She was willing to bet money that he had always lived in either furnished apartments or in his parent's homes which had already been furnished.

"Mr. Stark" she began as she walked over to join him at the window. "I don't even know your tastes.

She was surprised to hear him breathe out a long sigh at her remark, one which almost sounded sad.

"I don't **have **any tastes, Ms. Potts when it comes to this sort of thing." He quietly admitted still staring out of the window.

She glanced over at him and noticed that his face had the most somber look on it. She was fairly certain that he was actually being quite serious with her right now.

"Well then" she began as he turned his head to look at her. "from looking at your home's architectural design, I can see that you like the open, natural look." She stated, noticing that he was now gazing intently at her. "There is one store in Malibu that might have just the right style of furnishings for you. They also offer interior decorating services. One of my boyfriends worked there during the summer for a couple of years making deliveries for them." She walked back to her desk and sat down at her laptop to quickly Google the business and then opened up their on line catalog. "Here, take a look."

Tony leaned over the desk so he could see the furniture and furnishings in the on-line catalog. He placed his left arm on the back of her chair and his right hand on her desk next to her laptop, occasionally clicking the pages on the catalog in order to scan through the pages.

"Well then, I suppose I'm going to need measurements of all the rooms you want furnished." She said with a small sigh somehow never expecting her first assignment with Tony Stark to be interior decorating.

Still paging through the catalog on her laptop "Jarvis, send virtual tours with all measurements to Ms. Potts' laptop so she can properly discuss furnishing the mansion once she meets with the interior decorator."

"As you wish, sir." Jarvis replied quickly.

Tony suddenly closed out of the catalog window and reached over and powered down her laptop. "I approve." He suddenly announced, quickly standing up and digging into his back pocket for his wallet. "You're going shopping, Ms. Potts." He said as he pulled out a black credit card with his name on it from Chase Manhattan. "Just make sure they can deliver by tomorrow." He said with a smile noting the confused look on her face as she stared at the card. "Jarvis has already set you up with signing authorization on my card and your own card is being FedEx'd here. Jarvis, call Hogan."

"Very good, sir." Jarvis replied obediently. "He is on his way, sir."

"Who's Hogan?" she asked quickly, her eyes still locked with his as she took the card out of his hands gingerly.

"My bodyguard and driver." He replied as he turned away from her and walked back again to the window and resume staring out at the ocean. "This boyfriend of yours, Ms. Potts. Does he still work for this furniture company?" he asked quietly, almost tentatively.

"No." Pepper replied now curious at his question as she packed her laptop neatly into its case. "He graduated and is now a CPA with his father's firm in Norfolk, Virginia." Pepper could have sworn that she heard Tony actually let out a breath of relief at her answer.

"Good. I mean…" he started, still facing away from her "I mean… I just don't like competition…I mean competition for your time of course, Ms. Potts." He tried to explain finally turning around to face her.

She looked at him thoughtfully. "Of course, Mr. Stark."

He nervously smiled in relief at her words as she suddenly heard heavy footsteps behind her effectively interrupting her curious assessment of his apparent relief that one of her ex-boyfriends now lived across the country from them.

"Good, Hogan, you're here." Tony said clearing his throat as he attempted to take charge once again. "Ms. Potts, this is Hap Hogan. Ms. Potts is going shopping and she is going to need an escort."

"No problem boss." Hogan replied looking at Pepper tentatively. "Pleased to meet you Ms. Potts." He said reaching out to shake her hand.

"Likewise, Mr. Hogan." Pepper replied with a smile shaking his hand firmly.

"Hogan" Tony said firmly, staring at their joined hands with almost a scowl "just make sure you get her back here ASAP after she orders the furniture and furnishings for the mansion. And on your way back pick us up some burgers and fries for lunch from Al."

Happy half saluted Tony. "Does that mean that I finally get to ditch my folding chairs now? Those things are just too small for my large a…. ah body to fit in."

Tony chuckled. "Who knows Hogan? If you take good care of Ms. Potts she may even buy you a super-sized rolling chair for you to sit your super-sized body in."

"Be still my heart." Happy deadpanned politely taking her laptop case from her as he walked to the door holding it open for Pepper so she could pass through the door first.

Pepper followed Happy as he walked down the walkway towards the main elevator. He stood to the side of the elevator door allowing her to enter the car before him. Once inside the elevator, he pressed the 'G' button and the elevator began to move downward.

"So" he began quietly not looking at her as he spoke "Jarvis says that you are Tony's new PA."

Pepper looked at him as he turned his head to look at her. "Yes I am." She replied politely, not at all surprised that Jarvis had been in communication with Mr. Hogan.

He cleared his throat before he began to speak again "Well…it's just…that you don't seem to be like Tony's other PAs at all…." He looked at her expectantly as if hoping that she understood what he meant by his words.

Pepper immediately felt her cheeks heat up and gripped the handle of her purse tightly. "If you mean by your words that I don't look like a super model with breast implants….then no, I guess I really don't seem to be like Mr. Stark's other PA s at all." She snapped defensively as the elevator car came to a stop.

"No, no, no. That's not it at all Ms. Potts." He replied a blush growing on his own face at her words. "It's just that you seem….well you know….really nice and smart, that's all."

The elevator door opened and Happy immediately held the door open and motioned for Pepper to walk through the opening and into the garage.

Pepper stopped once they were both outside the elevator realizing that Happy was being sincere and she immediately felt bad for her choice of words and her tone. "Look, Mr. Hogan" she began turning to look at him squarely in the eyes "I'm sorry I spoke harshly to you, but it's just that I guess I am a little sensitive about my image being new to this job and trying to come to grips with Mr. Stark's reputation and all."

"I'm sorry too, Ms. Potts" Happy apologized back "I didn't mean to make you mad. It's just that you seem to be….different…but in a good way, of course."

She put her hand out to him as he looked down and tentatively reached out to shake her hand. "How about we start over again?" she asked as she smiled at him. He immediately smiled back at her in return. "And enough with the 'Ms. Potts' already. Please call me Pepper."

"Fair enough…Pepper." He replied as he shook her hand gently "And please call me Happy or Hap. Mr. Hogan is my dad's name."

Pepper laughed as he motioned her towards a black Bentley. Pepper's eyes went wide at the site of the luxury car as Happy opened the rear door for her.

She hesitated momentarily. "If it's all the same to you, I can ride up front."

"No can do, Pepper." Happy replied taking her arm and gently tugging her towards the open door. "You have to ride in the back. Its standard safety and security practice for SI executives."

Pepper blinked once as the word 'executive' sank in. "OK then, Happy." She said smiling at him "I wouldn't want to get you in trouble with **our** boss."

"Thanks, Pepper" Happy replied, closing the door for her and walked quickly to the driver's door immediately sitting down in the driver's seat. "Jarvis has already sent the store's GPS location to the Bentley's onboard computer. Traffic is fairly light so it won't take us any longer than 15 minutes to get there." He then closed his door and buckled his seat belt and looked at her in the rear view mirror "Just sit back and enjoy the ride."

"Thanks Happy." She said putting her seat belt on as she looked around the interior of the Bentley. It was immaculately clean and well kept. There appeared to be a small bar between the front seats which opened into the passenger area.

"If you're thirsty there are some waters in the bar." He said as the car began to move up the ramp leading out of the garage. "Jarvis and I didn't know what you liked to drink so I put some Fuji waters in there for you. So just let me know what you like to drink and I will keep them stocked in the Bentley and limos for you."

"Thank you, Happy." She replied smiling at him in the rear view mirror. "Water is just fine with me." She leaned over and quietly opened up the bar noting the expensive scotch and brandy as well as ice and expensive crystal glasses also in the bar.

True to his word, they arrived at the store in only twelve minutes. Pepper noticed that Happy was a very safe driver although he seemed to drive a little on the fast side. But considering who he worked for, having a fast driver just seemed to fit with Mr. Stark's personality.

Pepper noticed that Happy parked illegally on the road in front of the store and quickly walked around the Bentley to open her door for her.

She raised an eyebrow at him as he held his arm out for her, helping her out of the low back seat. "You know that you are parked illegally." She said as she stood up next to him.

"Yep" he replied as he closed her door and remotely locked the Bentley guiding her towards the front door "Jarvis will pay the parking ticket. I get paid to guard you, and sometimes that will mean getting a few parking tickets. No big deal."

Pepper looked at him and politely shook her head in disbelief. She was definitely going to have a talk with Jarvis later.

As they entered the store a woman eagerly stepped up to greet her.

"Ms. Potts" the woman said happily "I was told to expect you. My name is Emma and I am one of the interior decorators on staff here. It will be my pleasure to help you with your order today."

"Thank you Emma." Pepper replied politely, figuring that Jarvis was the one who had called ahead to the store. She briefly thought about asking Emma to call her Pepper, but something told her that keeping formalities between them would actually help create a professional respect for her new position as PA for Stark Industries. "Is there someplace I can set up my laptop so we can discuss furniture requirements for the Stark Mansion?"

"Of course, Ms. Potts." Emma replied leading the way towards a beautifully decorated office. "Right this way."

Two hours later, furniture and furnishings had been ordered and paid for to the tune of $395,324.33. Pepper was amazed when she signed off on the receipt for such a large amount of money that the credit limit for Tony's card was apparently quite high. Emma never once questioned the credit card or her signature which too was pretty amazing. Pepper was assured that all of the furniture would be delivered by tomorrow afternoon to the Stark Mansion as well as set up in each of the respective rooms as per their mutually agreed upon designs. Pepper was especially proud of the natural burl table that complimented the huge couch for the living room next to the fireplace. And she did noticed Happy's quiet sigh of relief when she ordered him an ergonomic rolling chair for his office in the garage.

Happy had stood by her side the entire time she was with Emma, politely refusing to sit down. Pepper noticed that he kept a close eye on everything happening inside and outside of the glass door of the office while she and Emma selected furniture and furnishings.

As they left the store Happy once again opening the door for her, Pepper noticed several men with cameras standing next to the Bentley. Happy quickly walked in front of her trying his best to shield her from them, but there were too many of them and only one of Happy. Her eyes were immediately blinded by the camera flashes, but she quickly felt a hand on her arm guiding her towards the back seat of the Bentley.

"Back off, bozo." She heard Happy yell at one of the men maneuvering closer to her.

"So you're Number 63, huh?" the man shouted at her as she sat down in the seat placing her purse and laptop beside her. "Nice legs, sweetheart!"

Happy quickly closed her door and within seconds she heard the front driver's door slam. She was just beginning to recover her vision from the camera flashes.

"Fucking paps" Happy muttered under his breath as he started the car. "Buckle up, Pepper."

Pepper managed to get her seatbelt on just before she was thrown back into the seat by the rapid acceleration of the Bentley away from the store and the annoying paparazzi.

After a minute of regaining her sight, she looked up into the rearview mirror at Happy whom she noticed was looking at her with concern clearly showing in his eyes.

"Does that happen often?" she asked locking eyes with him.

"Afraid so." He replied "I'm just glad there were only a few of them."

"So you're saying that it could have been worse." She replied already dreading his answer.

"Yep." He commented placing what looked to be a parking ticket on the dash. "Now you know why I parked where I did."

Pepper could only imagine what it would have been like to have had to walk a block or two to the parked car with the paparazzi dogging them. Maybe a parking ticket was worth it after all.

Pepper was replaying the words of the photographer again in her head. She wondered how it was that they already knew about her being the 63rd PA for Tony Stark. "How did the paparazzi already know about me being hired as Tony's PA?" she said out loud.

"Not sure." Happy replied as he maneuvered through traffic "The paps are like wild dogs, always nosing around for a story they can sell to the highest bidder. And any story they can dig up or make up about our boss always sells big."

Pepper had always enjoyed her privacy. She wasn't shy at all, but she was reserved. It suddenly dawned on her just what she was going to have to give up as well as fortify if she decided to keep the PA job.

Happy looked up at the rear view mirror at the next red light and caught her eye. "Jarvis told me that you and Tony agreed to a 60 day trial as PA." he began his eyes serious "Tony would probably kick my ass if he knew I was telling you this, but I'm saying it anyways." He continued dropping his eyes again to the traffic as the light turned green. "Tony's life isn't exactly easy on the folks that are close to him."

"I've gathered that much already." She replied staring at the back of his head as he drove "But I do appreciate the warning though. And I will definitely keep this conversation just between us."

After just a few minutes of driving, Happy turned the Bentley into the parking lot of what Pepper noticed was a local restaurant called The Country Kitchen. She then remembered what Tony had said about bringing lunch back with them.

"Come on Pepper. Let's get some lunch. Dealing with the paps back there has made me **hungry**." Happy said happily.

Pepper realized that Happy was in his own way making a joke and she giggled under her breath as he walked around the car and opened the car door for her.

"This place has some really good turkey wraps" he said patting his stomach tenderly "and I should know."

"Then I will trust your judgment and your stomach on that." She teased back as they walked up to the order window.

"Happy, my man." The gray headed man at the window said cheerfully as they approached the window.

"Hey, Al." Happy said back reaching out to shake the man's hand through the window. "The usual today plus a turkey wrap for Ms. Potts here."

Al stuck his arm out the window towards Pepper and she stepped up and shook his hand firmly, smiling up at him.

Al returned her smile with a brilliant one of his own. "Ms. Potts, I'm Albert Harris, but you can call me Al. It's a pleasure to make your acquaintance."

"Ms. Potts is now working with me trying to keep Tony in line." Happy added as Pepper shot him a curious look.

"Well, good luck with that." Al replied with a toothy grin for both of them. "Happy here has been trying to do that for years now. You do have your work cut out for you, Ms. Potts."

"So I've heard. And Al, please call me Pepper." She replied as the old man smiled cheerfully at her and then quickly turned and immediately started barking out food orders to his cooks in the back of the kitchen.

"What will you have to drink, Pepper?" Al questioned, turning once again to peer out of the window at them.

Pepper looked up at the menu. "Some of your fresh squeezed lemonade sounds wonderful, Al." she said

"Coming right up." Al said quickly, ducking his head back inside.

"Al's a good guy." Happy commented looking at her "And he makes a mean burger."

Suddenly Al reappeared at the window with what appeared to be a huge ice tea for Happy and an equally large lemonade for her.

"Here you go, folks." Al said as they each took their drinks "Your food will be ready in about ten minutes or so."

"Thank you, Al." Pepper replied politely as Happy motioned her over to a table under an umbrella.

Happy and Pepper sat down at the table and each of them took a sip of their respective drinks.

"So, how long have you been working for Tony?" she asked him quietly.

"Almost 5 years now." Happy relied. "The first time I saw Tony, I was working as a bouncer for a club in west L.A. and I broke up a fight Tony had started, and ended up throwing Tony out the bar." He said taking another long drink of his tea.

Pepper started laughing at that. "Somehow I bet there's more to the story than just that, Happy." She teased and noticed a small smile break out on his face.

"A little. As I was stuffing Tony into the back of his limo, he handed me his business card and told me that he wanted to hire me as his body guard. I just thought he was full of crap and almost threw his card away the next day while I was watching the news. But then I saw a news report on Stark Industries about Tony and I thought to myself 'Hey, there's that little shrimp that damn near started a riot in my bar last night'. I was a professional boxer at the time, and not a very good one, so I was not well off and was making ends meet working as a bouncer. So I took a chance and called the number on Tony's card. He actually answered the phone sounding hungover as hell, but he did remember me and asked me to come to his office that afternoon. When I met him in his office, he hired me on the spot."

"Tony must have been, what 19 at the time?" she asked curious.

"Yep." He replied. "and scrawny as hell."

"So he really needed a bodyguard, didn't he?" she teased.

"With that mouth and attitude, he sure did." He said actually chuckling to himself.

They sat in amused silence for a moment.

Suddenly Happy turned to her his eyes serious again. "Tony still drinks a lot."

"I have heard that." She replied.

He stared at his tea and furrowed his eyebrows. "He can get out of control when he drinks too….blackouts even."

Pepper noticed that he continued to stare at his tea, now obvious tension in his body. She patiently waited for him to continue knowing that he had more to tell her.

"I've never known him to force a woman to…you know… because women seem to just throw themselves at him. But I end up driving a lot of his one-night-stands home or wherever." He said quietly looking up to finally meet her eyes. "Just be careful around him, Pepper. Don't end up like those women. I mean…you're too good for that….and I kinda wanna keep you around to help me with him. I think you'll be good for the little shrimp. He really needs someone as smart as him keeping him on track."

On hearing the sincerity in his voice, she couldn't help herself and reached out to lay her right hand on his forearm. "Thanks for the warning and the advice, Happy." She said, a small smile forming on her face. "You're such a good friend to Tony." She said patting his arm gently. "And I think we are going to work well together keeping the little shrimp in line."

Happy's face suddenly lit up in the biggest smile she had ever seen on his face, and they both began laughing out loud together.


	5. Chapter 5

**Most of the characters in this story belong to Marvel Comics and whoever else has current legal ownership of Iron Man at the moment. No infringement on any corporate, business, or individual's rights is intended in any way. This story is not being written for profit, just for enjoyment.**

**Author's Note: Companion piece to 'Every Picture Tells A Story' where you will find all about Harvey.**

**Meeting Rhody for the First Time**

Pepper tapped her foot impatiently as she stared at the oven intently watching the timer ticking down the seconds until dinner was done.

It was only five o'clock on a Wednesday afternoon, but the dark and stormy conditions outside created the illusion of it being much later in the day. And the mood inside the Stark Mansion was just as gloomy as the outside weather with today marking the anniversary of the deaths of Maria and Howard Stark.

Tony had been hiding out for the last three days in his workshop and even though Pepper had gone out of her way to fix or have brought in Tony's favorite foods, she knew that he had eaten very little. And by his haggard appearance this morning, she suspected that he had not slept much either. She knew that he had started drinking heavily yesterday and she was fairly certain that he had yet to stop. His level of depression was quite high when Happy came to pick him up earlier this afternoon and she knew that Happy had to even help finish dressing him before they could go to the cemetery.

She had either canceled or rescheduled all of his meetings this week based upon Jarvis' recommendation as well as Happy's prior experiences with Tony during this time of the year. Pepper made sure that she had given Happy two bouquets of Maria's favorite flowers to take with Tony just as Jarvis had recommended.

Tony's dark mood had indeed cast a shadow over the mansion this week. And to add to Pepper's own personal stress levels, the end of the week would mark the end of her two month 'trial' period as Tony's PA, and she still hadn't decided whether or not she was going to stay or retreat back to accounting. Working for Tony had had definitely had its ups and downs, but the one thing for sure was there had never been a dull moment for her in the last two months. Pepper had always been the type of person who thrived on challenges and she had found that there was certainly no shortage of challenges for her as Tony's PA. But was the lack of boredom a good enough reason to put up with the tons of stress that went with the PA job? She still wasn't sure.

After the first week of trial and error in type and intensity of manipulations she used to prod and poke Tony with, she had finally managed to get Tony to stay fairly close to his meeting schedule during the weekdays. She had even manipulated him into attending a regular SI Board meeting and had sat next to him during the meeting which Tony had told her was her 'punishment' for her clever manipulation. Her presence there had surprisingly pleased most of the Board members with the exception of just a few of the 'old régime' members as Tony had called them. And of course Mr. Stane, being one of those members, was definitely not happy about her appearance at the meeting. Pepper had actually found the meeting quite interesting and informative as she divided her time between listening to the speakers and acting as Tony tangent monitor as she fought to keep Tony's attention on the meeting.

She had found that the PR part of her new job came easy to her, much to her own surprise. But then again she had always had a knack for seeing things in a positive light. She had decided on her own to start publically documenting Tony's non-weapons related inventions and distribute the information out in the form of SI press releases after talking with Jarvis one afternoon only two weeks after she started working for Tony. She had been impressed and amazed when Jarvis had provided her with the documentation for Tony's inventions in the medical technology field as well as in saltwater reclamation systems. She had no idea that the 'Bomb Boy' invented anything that didn't blow up.

She also found out from Jarvis about Maria Stark's philanthropy foundations and how much Tony had continued to support them both with his own inventions as well as his money, but without drawing any public attention to any of his gifts. Pepper's own passion in life was community service work, and she found herself very impressed with Tony not only carrying on his mother's great work, but doing it somewhat anonymously.

SI's PR department had immediately supported her and helped her with formatting her releases documenting Tony's non-weapons related inventions. Surprisingly, after only just a few days, her press releases seemed to have both generated positive feedback from the media, as well as had a positive effect on SI's stock price. Just yesterday, one of the older, more cantankerous SI board members had called her to personally thank her for her work on those press releases, citing them as the sole reason for the current upward trending of SI's stock prices. And he had politely requested that she continue publishing them.

While working on the press releases, she found that everyone that she had met at SI's Public Relations department had welcomed her with open arms. After a few meetings with the group, she found them to be exceptionally astute and actually fun to be around. The head of the SI Public Relations team, Martin Janus had personally called her less than a week ago to thank her for the great job she was doing as basically damage control and head cheer leader for Tony. At the time, Pepper had remembered back to her first meeting with Mr. Stane and his remark about the PR department's Christmas wish list, and she had suddenly realized that Mr. Janus must now be envisioning her in the form of an early Christmas present for his group; one that he had high hopes on keeping.

The past two months had its share of awkward moments too. Tony had insisted that they take a picture together for her one month anniversary even though she had argued that being his 63rd PA was not official until after her 60 day trial period. But the up side to the much argued about photo shoot, which Tony had insisted be taken in his office at Stark Industries, was seeing Harv Matheson again. Harv was the SI technical photographer for the R&D department, who would sometimes moonlight under duress as a vetted photographer for SI's Public Relations department. Pepper had met Harv when she was first accepted into the SI Junior Executive Program and Harv had been the photographer for the photos of her group. She had talked with Harv after she and Tony had finished their photo shoot, and found Harv to be interesting and quite likable and they had immediately struck up a friendship.

Some of the weekends during the past two months had actually been quiet with Tony hiding out in his workshop, totally engrossed in his projects and as expected, needing pushed and prodded to eat and sleep. And of course there had been several weekends of impromptu parties for Tony at the mansion that had involved lots of drunken revelry for Tony, lots of women in and out of Tony's bed, and a ton of cleanup, both the physical and legal kind for Pepper afterwards. Fortunately SI's PR and Legal departments had come to her rescue after both parties. And of course Pepper had made sure that Tony had received a very large piece of her mind after each party while he was still hung over and at her mercy, making sure he would not ever forget that he was the CEO of Stark Industries and that everyone expected better of him now, his playboy reputation notwithstanding.

But by far the biggest Starkipade that Tony had pulled was after a five day work marathon in his workshop almost three weeks ago. Tony had flown to Baja without telling her, ending up drunken, wallet-less, and beat up in a Mexican jail which had required her to fly to Baja in the middle of the night to post his bail as well as smooth over relations with the local Mexican police chief there. But given his past history before she was his PA complete with videos and pictures as documentation, he could have easily done something far worse than just ending up in a Mexican jail, and for that she was actually grateful. Posting bail and smoothing over ruffled politician's feathers she could handle. Once she got Tony safely back on the SI jet and she was satisfied that he had suffered no permanent damage, she had lectured him until she physically ran out of breath as he gingerly held his head in his hands, occasionally wincing at her words. She had then refused to speak to him for the rest of the flight back home and most of the next day until he actually apologized to her for leaving and not telling her.

During the first three weeks that she held the position of PA, Pepper had seen the press and in particular the paparazzi do their very best to insinuate in both pictorial and written form, that she had somehow 'slept her way to the top' straight out of college as they started to include her personally in their 'stories'. Pepper knew that her family and friends knew better, but those libelous articles had left her feeling both insulted and angry. And she quickly decided to take a proactive stance instead of a reactive one with regards to the press and the paps.

She had quickly and calmly made enough professional contacts within the press that she now personally knew all of the reporter's supervisors by their first names, as well as the owners of the companies they worked for. And she wasn't the least bit shy at making phone calls to these people on a regular basis. Through her new 'contacts' within the media, she had been able to squash most of the articles about her before publication, and had even help spin some of the stories that did make it out into the media about Tony to SI's and Tony's advantage. And within weeks she had kicked enough paparazzi metaphoric ass using SI's legal team to actually now be somewhat feared by the local paps and subsequently given a wide berth by most of them.

It seemed that everyone at SI knew about her 60 day trial as PA now, and they were all doing their best to persuade her to make the position permanent for her with their encouraging telephone calls, lunch and dinner invitations, and even thinly veiled bribes.

One of the Board members, whom she found out from Jarvis was actually single, had sent her three large bouquets of expensive roses with a note both thanking her for her hard work, as well as asking her out on a dinner date. Tony had managed to find the note later in the day when he was looking through her desk presumably for paper clips. He had surprised her by strongly objecting to both the flowers and the dinner invitation, complaining that the Board member was obviously trying to steal Pepper away from him. Seeing the unbelieving look on her face at his jealously-driven outburst, Tony had quickly downplayed his emotional reaction to both the flowers and the note, and swiftly left for his workshop leaving Pepper a little concerned and a lot confused at his actions.

Even Claire had called her on Monday to let her know how good of a job she thought Pepper was doing as Tony's PA, citing the current balanced budget in the R&D department which at SI was truly a rare occurrence. And, as usual, Claire had asked about how her and Tony were getting along, reminding her again how many marriages began as good business relationships. Claire's thinly disguised arranged marriage proposal for her and Tony had now become a running joke between the two of them.

Without a doubt, the biggest downside for her as Tony's PA had been getting use to the death threats and assassination attempts that surrounded Tony when he traveled. Pepper still found it difficult to be at the epicenter of the huge security entourage that protected Tony whenever he traveled away from home. Their first trip overseas together was to France only one week after she had started to work for him. They were attending an international electrical engineering convention when a man with a history of terroristic ties had pulled a pistol on both her and Tony as they were leaving the conference on the second day. To his credit, Tony had quickly responded to the threat and had shielded her from the would-be assassin's bullets in the few seconds before his security team took the man down. Tony had been wearing a bullet proof vest at the time, so he had ended up with only a few bruises. She had miraculously ended up without a scratch as Tony had tightly enveloped her with his body and had even managed to cushion her fall to the concrete floor of the parking garage. And in his usual twisted sense of humor as he gently pulled her up to stand, Tony had told her not to worry because she would now be getting hazard pay for the duration of the conference.

As her adrenaline rush waned following the close call, she had seriously considered whether or not she needed to quit right there on the spot. But running away from trouble wasn't exactly in her nature, so she quickly pulled herself together and carried on just as if nothing had happened as did Tony. When they were in the limo headed for their hotel she had thanked him for saving her life. He then just shrugged his shoulders sadly at her saying nothing in reply, and quickly proceeded to drink his way into a stupor that night. Later that evening, it didn't take much convincing from Happy to get her to wear a SI bullet-proof vest under her business suit when ever they were traveling away from home from then on starting with the third day of that conference.

As she looked at the oven timer for the umpteenth time in the past five minutes, she thought once again about the human puzzle that was Anthony Edward Stark. Tony had consistently both amazed and annoyed her; most of the time within the very same breath. Pepper had never known anyone in her life that she wanted to strangle one minute and hug the next, but that in a nutshell was how she genuinely felt about one Tony Stark. That he was brilliant she had no doubt, and when he was sober, his natural arrogance was tempered with humor, wit, and a genuine warmth. But when he drank, which was far too often, he became a jerk of the highest magnitude.

However, much to her relief, when he drank he had never ever threatened, groped, or humiliated her in public or in private. There had only been a few sexual innuendos that he had directed towards her when he had been totally wasted, but even those were fairly mild in nature. Happy was usually the one who stayed with him when he drank himself into unconsciousness. She had only had to put him to bed by herself one time when he was too drunk to barely walk on his own and Happy had been out of town. She had simply let him fall into his bed fully clothed, rolled him onto his side and propped pillows around him to keep him on his side in case he threw up. She had pulled up a chair next to his bed and had sat up with him the rest of the night; too frightened to sleep fearing that Tony would somehow die on her watch. She was overjoyed when Happy relieved her on 'Drunk Duty' around 6:00AM the next morning. She had never spoken about that night since.

"Ms. Potts" Jarvis announced breaking Pepper out her now dense memory fog "Colonel Rhodes has informed me that his ETA is less than five minutes."

"Thank you Jarvis." She replied looking up at the camera located in the corner of the kitchen.

It seemed that the one bright spot in the day was to be the arrival of Colonel Rhodes. He had been Tony's friend since Tony's first year at MIT and was three years older than Tony. Rhodes had been serving in the US Air Force since he graduated from MIT and was currently deployed to Europe. Jarvis had told her that Colonel Rhodes tried his best to stay with Tony during this time every year, having personally comforted Tony when his parents had been killed. Jarvis had also told her that he had been held up at a meeting in Washington, DC yesterday and was not able to get to Malibu in time to go with Tony to the cemetery this afternoon.

Pepper peaked inside the oven and decided that her dish was done enough to set the oven to the 'keep warm' setting. She had homemade bread loaves rising in one of the other ovens ready to bake when Tony and Happy returned. She feared that Tony was probably too drunk to even want to eat. But she couldn't just stand by and wait without doing something, and she was currently caught up on all of her SI work. She knew that cooking for her was just simply edible stress relief and that Happy, Colonel Rhodes, and she would at least get a good meal out of her therapy for today.

She suddenly heard the large front door of the mansion open and close noisily.

"Colonel Rhodes, sir." Jarvis voice boomed in the front section of the mansion "So good to see you again."

"What's shaking 'J'" Rhodes voiced echoed back to him "How is my favorite major-domo doing these days?"

Pepper had started to walk out of the kitchen towards the front door to greet him when she heard Jarvis' reply.

"Very well indeed, sir." Jarvis responded "Ms. Potts is awaiting your arrival in the kitchen, sir."

"Well, I certainly can't keep the head Tony wrangler waiting, now can I Jarvis?" Rhodes replied laughing loudly.

Suddenly Colonel Rhodes walked briskly into the kitchen his face lighting up with a huge smile when he saw her, one which she immediately returned.

"That would be inadvisable, sir." Jarvis noted. "I have noted that Ms. Potts can be quite demanding when kept waiting."

The word 'demanding' stuck in Pepper's head. Pepper enjoyed teasing Jarvis almost as much as Tony did, and she was constantly amazed at the AI's ability to be so human-like especially in his more 'real' than 'artificial' sense of humor.

Rhodes swiftly stuck out his hand in greeting to her and she met him halfway with her hand outstretched as he shook her hand in a firm motion.

"Colonel Rhodes." She said as they continued to shake hands.

"Ms. Potts." He countered his eyes crinkling ahead of another smile appearing on his face. "Jarvis has told me a lot about you."

"I'm sure he has." She teased looking up at the security camera as they released hands "And I'm fairly certain that most of what he has told you is true."

"Why Ms. Potts," Jarvis countered almost sounding hurt "I am not programmed to present anything other than the facts."

"And just who is it that programmed you, Jarvis?" She countered drawing a hearty laugh out of Colonel Rhodes.

"She's got you there 'J'" Rhodes replied still laughing.

"It seems that Colonel Rhodes agrees with me, Jarvis." She said with a small giggle "And he's known you and Tony a lot longer than I have."

"Please call me Jimmy or Rhodey." Rhodes said smiling broadly at her. "I don't believe in formalities between friends."

"Then please call me Pepper, Jimmy" she replied suddenly feeling the warmth behind his words to her. Her people radar had pinged Rhodey as a good man and one who could be trusted.

"God, it sure smells good in here." Rhodey remarked looking pointedly at the oven "I had what barely passed for a sandwich at the Pentagon for lunch."

"I could serve you up some of my Italian meatloaf ahead of dinner if you'd like, Jimmy." Pepper said moving towards the oven.

Rhodey turned to the counter and immediately spotted homemade brownies on a large platter. "If you wouldn't mind I'll have a couple of brownies and a cup of coffee instead." He said reaching out to pull two large brownies off the top of the pile on the platter "I'd hate to spoil my dinner, you know."

"No, of course you wouldn't." Pepper deadpanned walking over to the cabinet to pull out a cup for him.

"Hey, Pepper" he started quickly moving in front of her and flashing her a quick grin "Don't do that. I can get the cup myself."

"As you wish." Pepper replied walking back to the counter and picking up her cup of tea.

"Would it be OK with you if we sat and talked a bit?" Rhodey asked quietly the smile on his face fading rapidly as he poured himself a large cup of coffee.

She turned to him and smiled. "Sure." She replied politely walking around to sit down one of the stools at the counter which separated the kitchen from the rest of the house. "Is this OK?"

"Great actually." He said with a laugh. "Keeps me close to the brownies, which are delicious by the way."

"Thank you, Jimmy." Pepper said chuckling under her breath "And of course, I wouldn't want you suffering from brownie separation anxiety, now would I?"

Rhodey laughed as they sat down next to each other and he took a long drink of his black coffee washing down the entire brownie that he had just stuffed into his mouth.

"I know you don't know me at all, but you will find that I don't like beating around the bush when it comes to Tony." He started turning his head to look directly into her eyes, his own eyes now serious. "I've been talking to Tony off and on the past two days, and I know that something other than Howard's and Maria's deaths is weighing my little brother down."

The silence stretched out between them now as Pepper waited for him to continue.

"So I hit Jarvis up for some intel, and he told me that this might be your last week as Tony's PA and that you might be retreating back to SI's accounting group." He continued his eyes still locked with hers. "I mean I know Tony's a handful to babysit and all, but from what I've been able to pry out of the little twerp, he likes you and he thinks you're doing a great job as PA. And what's more important is that he trusts you. And Tony doesn't give his trust lightly to anyone. Both Jarvis and even Hap say that you have somehow managed to get a handle on both your job duties as well as Tony, which I know from personal past experience is not easy to do at all."

Pepper looked down at her tea cup in thought. "Yes, the end of my 60 day trial period as Tony's PA is up at the end of this week." She began after taking a long sip of her hot tea. "But I still haven't made up my mind what I intend to do with regards to staying as Tony's PA or retreating back to accounting."

"I'm going to be frank with you here, Pepper." He said sitting his coffee cup down on the counter with a loud clank. "You've been around Tony long enough to know that he is scarily smart when it comes to inventing, but painfully stupid when it comes to taking care of his public or personal business and more importantly his own health. And from what I personally know about the Stark family, both his dad and granddad were functional alcoholics and it appears that Tony hasn't fallen far enough from the Stark family tree to avoid those addiction genes. I mean the kid started drinking scotch and hitting the brothels when he was 15 for crying out loud thanks to good 'ole Obie who had realized early on that it's much easier to control a drunk, man-whore than it is a genius."

Pepper looked up and met Rhodey's eyes at the mention of Obadiah. She saw bitterness mixed with sadness deep within Rhodey's dark brown eyes. She had her suspicions about Obadiah's motives when it came to Tony the first time she he had met with Obadiah in his office nearly two months ago. And Rhodey had just confirmed her feelings of mistrust in Stane.

"And unless something changes with Tony, I doubt very seriously that he will live to see his 40th birthday, maybe not even his 30th at the rate he's going." He said sadly. "Tony doesn't need a babysitter as much as he needs a partner that he can trust who will have his back against the Board and Obie. Someone who is as smart as him and who isn't afraid to tell him when he's screwing up. And he really needs someone who is just as stubborn as he is, who can keep him on track and focused on doing positive things with that brilliant brain of his instead of killing his brain cells one at a time in a glass of scotch. I hate to sound corny here Pepper, but the brat needs a good woman in his life, and I get the feeling that you're it."

Pepper immediately felt the heat rise in her cheeks, and she was not at all certain how exactly to take his last words. She thought carefully for a few seconds before she spoke. "If I didn't know better, I would think that you are negotiating the terms of an arranged marriage, Colonel Rhodes."

Rhodey shook his head sadly. "I didn't mean to piss you off, Ms. Potts, but I love Tony like a brother and I can't help but want what's best for him. Being in the Air Force and deployed overseas right now, I don't get to spend a lot of time with him anymore, and I constantly worry about him falling off the cliff in the back of the mansion stumbling drunk one night alone."

Pepper was silent at his words, suddenly understanding Rhodey's true meaning behind his words. Her anger bubble burst quickly. She knew that Tony was lucky to have such a friend as Rhodey.

"What do you say we go back to 'Pepper' and 'Jimmy' again?" Pepper suggested with a small smile which Rhodey quickly matched. "I guess I'm still just a little sensitive when it comes to my professional relationship with Tony. I do understand your concerns about Tony, but you have to understand my concerns also."

The smile left Rhody's face immediately at her words and his eyes became dark and pleading. "I **do** understand your concerns Pepper. I've been Tony's friend and keeper for almost 10 years now. I **know** it's going to be hard on you, and most of the time you won't know whether you want to kill him or kiss him. And I know the press surrounding you and Tony is gonna suck big time all the time and that your private life will pretty much cease to exist now that you're his PA. But I'm asking you as Tony's friend to please consider keeping the PA job. He really needs someone like you in his life. And since Tony has never had a serious romantic relationship in his life, maybe we could just call it an arranged friendship instead of an arranged marriage." he said with a sly smile. "What do you say, Pepper?"

"I **will** take your words into consideration when I make my decision, Jimmy." She replied somberly "That's the best I can offer you at the moment."

"Fair enough, Pepper." He said reaching out to shake her hand. "And, thanks."

Pepper smiled at him as they shook hands in silence.

"Excuse the interruption, Ms. Potts and Colonel Rhodes" Jarvis said loudly "But Mr. Hogan has just called in to report that they are about 5 minutes away from the mansion.

"Did Happy say whether or not Tony was conscious?" Rhodey asked quietly, obviously very concerned.

"He did mention that Mr. Stark was still actively engaging in conversation with him, which considering their past trips to the cemetery is actually quite remarkable." Jarvis reported.

Rhodey turned to Pepper and a huge smile broke out on his face. "See" he said with a relieved laugh "I **told** you that you were a good influence on him."

"Actually Ms. Potts did promise to fix his favorite meal for him when he returned from the cemetery." Jarvis inserted quickly.

Rhodey's smile broadened and Pepper couldn't help but smile back at him.

"A little bribery Pepper?" he said teasingly.

"I would **never** resort to bribery in order to get someone to do my bidding." She teased back "But then again, I suppose it was just dumb luck that I fixed double dark brownies with pecans today, not that I would have any knowledge that those brownies are a particular Air Force Colonel's favorite dessert or anything like that."

"I **am** starting to like you, Pepper." Rhodey said with a laugh reaching out quickly to swipe another brownie off the top of the platter.

"As I told Mr. Stark the first morning that Ms. Potts reported for work at the mansion; she **is** quite likeable, sir." Jarvis broke into their conversation making both Rhodey and Pepper laugh out loud at the same time.

"Why Jarvis" she responded trying her best to stop laughing "thank you so much for your kind support."

"Always my pleasure, Ms. Potts." The AI replied graciously.

"So, do I help set the table for dinner as payback for my bribe, Pepper?" Rhody teased as he walked towards the cabinet containing plates.

"You're going to have to do more than just set the table for **those **brownies, Jimmy." She scolded mockingly. "You will also need to help clear the table and wash dishes too, mister."

"I don't know, Pepper. That's an awful lot of work." He said pitching his voice into a somewhat familiar whine, and then bursting out in a howl of laughter.

"Yeah, but those are awfully good brownies, Jimmy." She countered with a chuckle walking over to turn on the oven for the bread.

"Hey, Jarvis!" Rhodey called out a little breathless from laughing so much "Tony doesn't stand a chance against Ms. Potts, now does he?"

"I'm afraid not, Colonel Rhodes." Jarvis replied somberly sending Rhodey off into another fit of laughter.

Within minutes, Pepper noticed that the elevator door had closed. "Mr. Stark and Mr. Hogan have arrived." Jarvis announced.

With the table set, she and Rhodey moved back into the kitchen. Rhodey pulled the large bowl of salad out of the commercial refrigerator and sat the bowl on the counter as Pepper pulled the baked bread out of the oven.

Within minutes the elevator doors opened and Tony and Happy walked slowly out into the living area towards the kitchen. Pepper noticed that Tony was carrying a huge bouquet of flowers containing white chrysanthemums, yellow daffodils, and purple hyacinths which she immediately recognized as an apology bouquet. She also noticed that Tony's hair was in disarray and his tie had vanished somewhere, and she suddenly hoped that he had only gone to the cemetery and not somewhere else and gotten in trouble, although she knew that either Jarvis or Happy would have let her know if Tony had veered off course today.

Tony walked over to where she was standing and held the flowers out to her almost shyly. "I know I've been a bigger prick than usual for the past three days…..and … I'm sorry." His bourbon eyes pleaded with her blue ones over the bouquet.

"I forgive you, Tony." She replied not knowing what else to say, taking the flowers gingerly from his hands. "And thank you for the beautiful flowers." She said pulling them to her chest and inhaling their fresh scent.

"Hey, what about me, little brother. What'd you bring me, Starkster?" Rhodey said loudly, obviously attempting to break the awkward silence which had suddenly settled over all of them at the totally unexpected sight of Tony actually sincerely apologizing to someone.

Tony immediately turned and pulled Rhodey into a hug, quickly leaning in to kiss him square in the middle of his forehead, catching Rhodey completely off guard. "A big kiss, platypus!" Tony replied laughing as Rhodey quickly ducked away from him poking him in the ribs as he did.

Pepper actually laughed at Rhodey's embarrassment as she walked back into the kitchen with her bouquet, wanting to put the beautiful flowers into water as quickly as she could. She was still somewhat in shock over Tony's gesture towards her, especially the part where he had apologized in front of both Happy and Rhodey. She knew that she was going to have to pry the circumstances surrounding their trip to the florist for her bouquet out of Happy later.

"Just for that, I am so going to beat your scrawny ass at Halo after dinner." Rhodey said punching Tony soundly in the shoulder, knocking Tony off balance.

That Rhodey was able to so easily knock Tony off balance was proof that Tony had basically been starving himself for most of the week. For his height, Tony was well-muscled and toned, and not easily hurt which was definitely a plus since he basically created explosions for a living. Pepper quickly glanced over at Happy, silently enlisting his help.

"Speaking of dinner….when do we eat…I'm starving?!" Happy interrupted catching Pepper's glance and peering into the kitchen expectantly as Pepper pulled down a large flower vase from one of the cabinets, quickly placing her bouquet inside it after filling it full of water first.

"Then get your butts in here to help." She called out to all of them as she placed the large vase on the counter next to the brownies and the large homemade pecan and apple pies that she had baked earlier in the day after finding out from Jarvis that they were Tony's favorites.

"Pepper," Happy said walking into the kitchen, "what do you want me to do?"

"You can pull the meat loaf pan out of the oven and set it on the hot pads on the counter next to the salad." She told Happy and then looked expectantly at Tony and Rhodey who were looking at her curiously "Hey, you two can help too, you know." She gently fussed at the two men who quickly walked into the kitchen.

Tony immediately walked over to the other oven pulling it open after grabbing some oven mitts from the counter and pulled out what he knew was eggplant parmesan another one of his favorites. Pepper watched him out of the corner of her eye as he leaned over to smell the dish, a small smile forming on his face. Pepper smiled to herself realizing that maybe her own therapy was having a therapeutic effect on Tony as well. She suddenly felt warm and happy inside.

The meal went well with all of the guys having seconds and even thirds on the meat loaf completely emptying the large pan in the process. She found herself making a mental note to up the quantities for the next time she prepared the dish for them, and then quickly realized that if she retreated back to accounting, she would never prepare such a meal for them ever again. She shoved the thought way back in her head for the time being, and just concentrated on enjoying the meal and the company.

During dinner, Rhodey had told them all stories about the hilarious antics of fellow officers and commanders in Europe. Pepper had contributed a few stories about her own rambunctious roommates in college. Happy told some really funny stories about some of the other boxers he trained with and fought against. They all ate and laughed until they were full and happily satisfied. The pies and the rest of the brownies became past history quickly leaving only crumbs which she realized quickly that Happy was none to proud pick out of the pie pans. Pepper noticed that Tony didn't say a lot during the meal, but he did seem to enjoy the company and had even laughed at some of the stories they told. It seemed to Pepper that Tony's mood seemed to brighten more as their meal went on.

With a loud, contented sigh, Rhodey suddenly pushed away from the table stacking his dishes in a pile and picking them up. "The meal was absolutely amazing, Pepper! Thank you so much for cooking for us. You make one hell of a meatloaf, girlfriend! My sisters would kill for that recipe. Oh, and in return for my brownie bribe, Ms. Potts, it will now be my distinct pleasure to wash dishes for you, ma'am." He teased as he took his plates obligingly to the sink and began washing his plates off in the sink, then placing his plates neatly in the dishwasher. He then pulled the empty casserole plates off of the counter and began scrubbing them in one basin of the huge double sink after rolling his uniform sleeves up first.

Happy immediately stood up gathering his plates also. Pepper noticed that Happy motioned towards Tony as if asking him if he could take his plates too, and she saw Tony wave him off as he stood up and collected not only his own plates, but he picked up Pepper's plates as well.

"Allow me, Ms. Potts." He said quietly to her as she smiled up at him. "And thank you for the eggplant parmesan. It was delicious."

"You're welcome, Mr. Stark." She replied as he cracked a small smile back at her.

Tony joined Rhodey at the sink and began to rinse off all the dishes handing them to over to Happy who quickly loaded the dishwasher. Within just a few minutes they were all done.

"Halo time, Dudes….and Dudette!" Rhodey announced happily as he put away the last of the pans in the cabinet.

Pepper remembered that Jarvis had told her that Tony and Rhodey had a tradition of playing video games until they both passed out after they returned from the cemetery. Pepper hesitated to join them and Rhodey quickly noticed, walking up to her, and taking her by the arm gently.

"Come on Pepper." He pleaded with her quietly. "Stay with us for just a little while. It'll be fun, I promise."

"OK, OK!" she replied as he smiled broadly at her. "Maybe for an hour or so."

"Good." Rhodey said grabbing her by the hand and pulling her over to the elevator to join Tony and Happy for the trip down to the workshop where the big screen was set up.

One hour quickly turned to two, then three. Pepper had played Halo at UCLA with her roommates and she was fairly good at the game quickly managing to keep up with the guys. She soon found herself joining in with them as they verbally harassed each other with their continuous commentaries on each other's gaming skills.

In to their fourth hour of gaming, Happy mentioned that he was getting hungry again, so Tony had Jarvis order them all pizza and surprisingly no alcohol around 10:00 PM. Once the pizza arrived they ate pizza until they were all stuffed as they continued to battle each other in the video game.

Pepper found that she was very comfortable being around Happy, Tony, and Rhodey tonight, and that she actually was having a lot of fun with them. She knew that Rhodey and Happy each had three sisters, and it was apparently quite easy for each of them to treat her like just another sister; like a member of their own special 'extended' family of sorts. For her it felt like she was back home again with her brother and his friends for one of their famous 'game nights' during high school; nights that she didn't realize until tonight that she had missed so much when she had moved away from home. And seeing yet another side of her boss tonight, she could understand a little more now why both Rhodey and Happy treated Tony like a younger brother; well actually a younger, really annoying brother.

By 1:00AM Tony was passed out on the couch sound asleep, controller in one hand and a slice of pizza in the other. Pepper was sitting in chair off to the side of the couch and was starting to find herself nodding off to sleep from time to time. It had been a long day for all of them.

Rhodey looked over at Pepper and motioned her over to where he was standing next to Happy in front of an open supply closet holding a blanket and pillow in his hands. "I'm going to put Boy Wonder to bed right there on the couch." He told her quietly. "And before you deny it, I saw you falling asleep in your chair. So me and Happy here are asking you to stay over tonight so we won't have to worry about you getting home safe."

Pepper opened her mouth to protest when Rhodey help up his hand in protest.

"Look, Pepper" he said with a evil grin "Jarvis has already dished on you using one of the guest bedrooms, you know the one that happens to be as physically far from Tony's bedroom as possible here in the mansion, to sleep in when you have to stay here all night."

Pepper tiredly shrugged her shoulders in defeat at him. "Yeah, I am pretty sleepy." She admitted offering him a tired smile and a yawn in response. "It's been a long day."

"Good." Rhodey replied now satisfied with her answer. "You go on up to bed. I'm going to sleep on the other couch down here with the Starkster, so I will keep an eye on him for the rest of the night."

"And I'll be crashed in my office." Happy added placing a hand over his mouth trying his best to cover up a big yawn.

Pepper started to turn away from them so she could walk to the elevator when Rhodey's hand reached out and gently encircled her wrist. "And Pepper….thanks." he said sincerely.

She nodded and gave him a tired smile as she walked towards the elevator.

"And Pepper" Rhodey whispered towards her retreating form "I'm cooking breakfast for all of us tomorrow. And you haven't lived until you've had one of my special breakfast omelets."

"I can't wait." Pepper said trying her best to hide a big yawn and smile at the same time. "See you in the morning."

As the elevator slowly traveled up to the mansion's third level, Pepper reflected on the events of the past 24 hours. She had to acknowledge to herself that she was starting to feel right at home both in the Mansion here and in her position as Tony's PA. After meeting Rhodey tonight, enjoying dinner together, and being accepted into the 'fold' for the Halo marathon, she had felt happy, really happy.

And in the past two months, she had come to realize that as Tony's PA she could actually make a positive difference in both her professional life and in the Stark Industries business world. And of course one thing was for certain: she would never, ever have a boring day at work.

She knew that it was her weariness driving her mind in such directions at the moment, but she finally had to admit to herself that in spite of all the Tony Stark BS and attitude, she was actually beginning to find something quite likable about Mr. Anthony Edward Stark. And right now she wasn't sure if she should be terrified or thrilled at such a thought even being inside her head.

As she walked into her guest bedroom that she used when she stayed overnight at the mansion, she was automatically drawn to the windows and she stood there gazing out at the black moonless skies that merged seamlessly with the dark, moving water below. Suddenly a large shooting star appeared in the sky, trailing blue fire in its fall from the heavens. Pepper sighed, happy to have seen the falling star and knowing from her childhood that it was an omen of good fortune. As she continued to stare out at the ocean, she was enveloped in a feeling of peace and belonging as she thought back again on the events of the last 24 hours. And in that quiet moment of reflection, she suddenly made up her mind: Claire had been right, Pepper would not be returning to SI accounting.


	6. Chapter 6

**Most of the characters in this story belong to Marvel Comics and whoever else has current legal ownership of Iron Man at the moment. No infringement on any corporate, business, or individual's rights is intended in any way. This story is not being written for profit, just for enjoyment.**

**Author's Note: If you want more of Dr. Karen Summers, then please read my other two stories that feature this character: The Sense of Touch and Full Moon Rising.**

**Meeting Iron Man for the First Time**

It was exactly 6:03 AM the Sunday morning after Saturday night's SI Firefighter Gala, when Pepper's Blackberry started violently vibrating on the night stand next to her bed. Pepper immediately sat up now fully awake in her bed and quickly reached over to grab her phone, her heart starting to pound heavily in her chest with worry because of both the time of day and what had happened the night before at the Gala when Tony had disappeared from both the rooftop and the planet in less than 30 minutes.

She immediately recognized the number and breathed out a sigh of relief that at least it wasn't Rhodey with bad news about Tony…..again.

"Hey" Dr. Karen Summers, Pepper's college roommate and long time friend said cheerfully. "I have checked the news this morning and I'm pretty sure that hell hasn't frozen over yet considering that there are still thousands of crooks and creeps still waiting in line trying to get in…..so I am waiting here patiently for you to explain the pictures of you and one Tony Stark that are all over the internet this morning." She continued without offering Pepper a chance to respond. "And don't give me that 'it's not what you think" speech either. I **saw** the looks on **both** your faces."

In a flash Pepper was on her feet, padding quickly downstairs to where her laptop was sitting on her desk in her study. "**What** pictures?" she managed to get out between strained breaths.

"Don't play dumb with me, Virginia Anne Potts." Karen said flatly "Just type in 'Pepper Potts' on a current news search and you'll find those pictures. And you better be glad it's me calling instead of your Oma. Good thing I have this news alert set up on my PC on you. That's the only way I can keep up with your crazy life these days!"

'Oh God!' Pepper thought to herself. If Karen was mentioning her grandmother, then the pictures must be bad, really bad. But in her only three hours of sleep fuzz-like brain, she just couldn't figure out what pictures Karen was referring to at the moment. "OK….OK, I'm booting up my laptop right now." Pepper replied trying to remain calm. Suddenly the realization of Karen's words hit her. "Wait a minute…did you just say that **you** have a news alert set up for **me**?"

"Yup." Karen said cheerfully "Aren't you proud of me? I am so the pillar of technological prowess these days!"

"Words couldn't begin to describe how I feel at the moment." Pepper said sarcastically quickly logging in to her laptop and starting a news search immediately.

"Oh boy!" Karen replied suddenly serious "Why do I get the feeling that there is a lot more going on with you than just those pictures that are all over the internet?"

Pepper sucked in a quick breath as she opened up the first of 114, 324 articles related to her search on herself. She then noted in panic that 3,349 of the articles had been written within the past 6 hours. "Oh god!" She said out loud.

She quickly opened one of the articles and she found herself staring at the montage of photos taken of her and Tony dancing at last night's Gala from what appeared to be a cell phone. Tracking down the photographer was going to have to wait, she thought to herself as she focused all her attention on the photos.

"Which brings me back to the subject of **hell freezing over**!" Karen said with undisguised glee. "When last we spoke about one Tony Stark…and that was after he had come back from Afghanistan a month ago as I recall, you had told me in no certain terms that your relationship with him was, and I quote 'purely professional' and that 'hell would freeze over' before you would willingly enter into a personal relationship with him. Well, judging by the photos and the looks on **both **your faces, excuse me if I am not seeing anything other than two **willing** participants here."

Pepper was silent as she continued to look at the photos taken at the Gala of her and Tony dancing. There, in picture form, was the reason that she had not wanted to dance with Tony in the first place last night. Since he had returned home from that cave in Afghanistan, their relationship had slowly been evolving into something more than just best friends. But she wasn't sure exactly what they were evolving into just yet. And she still wasn't sure if her change in feelings towards him was just the relief in getting him back home safe, but she knew for a fact that seeing him walk off that transport jet thirty-one days ago had triggered some pretty deep emotions within her. It had taken her 92 days without him to realize that she had spent over 11 years in denial about how she really felt about Tony, and she was still trying to come to grips with that revelation. But what she couldn't deny right now was the expression of love and longing on his face as he looked at her while they were dancing. Those looks of his were both unmistakable and undeniable. And given the looks on her own face, there was no longer hiding just how she felt about him to the rest of the world, and in particular Karen, this morning either.

"Hey, Pep." Karen said a little louder in her phone "Earth to Pepper." She continued even a little louder. "Come on Pepper, level with me. What's really going on here?"

"I….I…..don't…really…know." Was all Pepper could think to say in reply to Karen's interrogation.

"Are you all right?" Karen prodded, now genuinely concerned at hearing the hesitation in Pepper's voice. The Pepper she knew and loved was never hesitant, and never, ever unsure.

"I'm not so sure right now." She replied so quietly that Karen could barely hear her.

"Now wait just a minute!" Karen said firmly, her voice now serious "Don't tell me that spoiled brat did something bad after those pictures were taken? He didn't hurt you did he? If he did, so help me, I will personally wreck that man!"

"No, Kar." Pepper defended quickly "Nothing like that. It's just…" she paused again not knowing how to explain the situation to her friend.

"It's OK, Pepper." Karen said quickly re-entering the conversation at Pepper's pause sensing now her reluctance to tell her what was going on. "I can tell you don't want to talk about things right now, and I do understand. But you know that you can call me anytime day or night if you want to talk about anything….anything at all."

There was a long pause as Pepper gathered her thoughts. "I know Kar, but it's just…it's just that things are so different now between Tony and I." she said taking a shaky, shuddering breath. "He has changed so much since he came back from Afghanistan. He's spending most of his time now in his workshop working on projects day and night with little or no sleep. He hasn't even slept in his own bed once since he came home, claiming he doesn't feel comfortable in his bedroom anymore. I know he's having nightmares every time he falls asleep down in his workshop, because I have Jarvis keeping tabs on him. And I've seen the evidence of brutal torture on his body." She finished quietly, taking another shuddering breath absolutely forbidding herself to cry right now. "Kar, I know he's suffering from PTSD, but he refuses to let me help him or get professional help for him." She explained quietly pausing with a heavy sigh and a quick sniff "And ….sometimes….. I catch him looking at me like he…. like….like…. I just can't describe it Kar." She paused again taking another deep breath. "And I've noticed other things too like he's totally stopped flirting with women…all women even though they are practically throwing themselves at his feet since his return. And ….he told me that….. that he didn't have anyone but me." She paused roughly brushing at her eyes with the back of her hand as tears threatened again to well up in her eyes. "Kar, he left me at the Gala last night after those pictures were taken, and no one has seen or heard from him since. And I'm just worried sick about him." She finished with a strangled sob, her emotions and lack of sleep now starting to get the best of her.

"What about Jarvis?" Karen said quietly, racking her brain in order to come up with a plan to help her. "Doesn't Jarvis know where he is?"

"Yes, he does" Pepper finally got out after a small sniffle "but Tony has forbid Jarvis to tell me where he is or what he's doing. And in all the years I have worked for Tony, he has never done that before."

Karen thought a moment. "I know you, Pepper." She said her voice now stronger and louder. "You can figure out a way around your major-domo and find out where Tony is. I know you can do it."

Pepper thought for a moment before responding, scrubbing at her face one more time trying to wipe away the few tears now falling from her eyes against her will. She sniffed one time loudly in Karen's ear. "Yes, I guess I do have a few tricks up my sleeve for dealing with obstinate AIs. Look Kar….I…" Pepper paused again, not wanting Karen to worry about her any more than she was already.

"I know, I know." Karen replied understanding immediately what Pepper was trying to say "You need to get off the phone so you can go beat up a certain AI and find your man." Pepper started to interrupt her but Karen pushed ahead. "And don't say he isn't your man now, 'cuz I now have the photographic evidence to back that up." Karen said trying her best to sound cheerful "I'm headed now to church to pray for both you and Tony now. Call me when you find Tony, little sister."

Pepper sniffled once and replied "I will….and thanks, Kar."

"Keep your chin up, Pepper. Just put your faith in God. Things are going to work out, you'll see." Karen said as they hung up.

Pepper looked over the photos once more before she shut down her computer. Her conversation with Karen had indeed jogged a memory from long ago as she started to remember some old protocols that Tony had set up with Jarvis for emergencies. And she definitely felt like this was an emergency. She walked back upstairs and quickly took a shower. While she was brushing her teeth, she looked at her face in the mirror and noticed the dark circles under both of her eyes. "You can do this, Virginia." She said to herself loudly. She quickly put on make-up, a black business suit, and then she grabbed her Blackberry, laptop, and purse on the way out of her house.

She spared a quick glance at her Blackberry when she got into her Audi. In the short thirty-two minutes since she had gotten off the phone with Karen, she already had fifty-four missed calls and forty-nine messages. Thankfully none of the calls were from either Rhodey or Jarvis. Quickly glancing through the caller IDs, she was amazed that so many of her business and personal contacts were up at this time of day on a Sunday morning. She felt her body unconsciously shiver when it suddenly dawned on her that obviously Karen wasn't the only one who had a news alert set for her. She still couldn't understand how or why she had become so news worthy.

As she drove, she realized that she was still quite angry about those photos being taken of them dancing. She couldn't help but feel betrayed somehow that such a private moment between them could have been made so public so quickly. She had been her usual cautious self when she had chosen the facility to host the Gala. And she had specifically instructed the management at Disney Hall that the Gala was to be a closed event with only the official event photographers having the legal right to take photos of any of the participants. Yes, indeed, she was definitely going to legally go after the cell phone photographer, and she made a mental note to call SI Legal this afternoon and discuss what action they were going to take against the photographer when they found him or her.

She then saw a text message from Harv and she opened it quickly as she stopped for the next red light, wondering briefly if perhaps it was he who had accidently leaked the photos. She shook her head at the thought as she read his message: 'Pepper, it wasn't me who took those pictures of you and Tony that hit the internet this morning. But Danielle and I did notice that you two did make a very handsome couple on the dance floor at the Gala. On and by the way Danielle says 'It's about damn time!' TTYL' In spite of everything going on right now, Pepper started laughing. Harv and Danielle had been trying for years to get her and Tony together, and it had become somewhat of a button for Pepper that each of them would press whenever they had the chance to tease her. And she definitely could use the laugh right now.

Being early on a Sunday morning, the traffic on PCH1 was light and Pepper arrived at Tony's mansion in less than 20 minutes. She quickly walked through the front door as Jarvis opened it for her.

She glanced over at the now empty ante room next to the living room, where until 8 days ago Maria Stark's piano had proudly stood. Pepper had not been in the mansion when the 'accident' occurred that had destroyed the piano. Both Tony and Jarvis had been tightlipped about the entire 'hole' incident, but Pepper had been through enough of Tony's experiments gone awry in the past 11 plus years to know that the 'new' access port into Tony's workshop was **not** the result of an explosion or anything else emanating from within the mansion. She had taken the SI contractors up to the roof six days ago so that they could order the materials for the repair job and had asked them about what could have caused such damage. Pepper now knew for a fact that something that weighed in excess of 500 pounds had fallen through the roof as well as four levels of mansion ceilings before coming to rest in Tony's garage on top of her favorite car, leaving a curiously human-like shape in the hood.

Sadly, Maria's piano had been the real tragedy in the accident. She had found Tony several times just standing and staring at the piano's remains the day after the accident. She knew by the look on his face that the loss of the piano had devastated him, but he had steadfastly refused to acknowledge his feelings to her. Pepper had called in the best piano restoration experts on the West Coast the next day from San Francisco and they had been able to salvage all of the ivory keys, as well as the four legs, but rest of the piano had been a total loss. They were going to build Tony an exact replica of Maria's piano using the salvaged keys and legs using the old photos of the piano that Pepper had given them. But it would be a least a month before the new piano would be delivered to the mansion.

She walked into the kitchen to fix herself a cup of tea. "Jarvis" she called out to the ceiling. "Have you heard from Mr. Stark?" she asked testing the current information waters between herself and the AI.

"I regret that I cannot share any information about Mr. Stark with you, Ms. Potts." The AI replied almost sadly.

"Can you at least tell me if he is safe or not?" she asked quietly.

The AI hesitated and for a moment, Pepper was fairly certain that she had found the chink in the AI's armor she was looking for.

"I have made numerous attempts to link up with his on-board computer for the past ninety-two minutes, but I regret that I am still unable to make contact with Mr. Stark." Jarvis replied.

She was now quite certain that the AI had just elected to roll over and play dead for her and she was ready for him. "Jarvis, activate protocol Sierra Alpha Sierra One Niner Seven Zero immediately."

"As you wish, Ms. Potts." Jarvis replied, actually sounding somewhat relieved "Protocol Sierra Alpha Sierra One Niner Seven Zero is now activated."

"Now tell me what's really going on here." She demanded quietly "Where is Tony and what has he been doing for the past eight hours? And most importantly is he OK."

"Mr. Stark left the mansion at 23:00 hours PST last evening bound for Gulmira, Afghanistan on a mission to destroy a cache of Stark Industries weapons which had fallen into the hands of a terrorist organization called 'The Ten Rings'." The AI reported. "His current medical condition is unknown due to sensor damage."

Pepper chose to ignore the sensor damage for the time being. "Knowing how fast SI jets fly, I take it that Mr. Stark traveled on a military jet, then?" she inquired after calculating distances and time quickly in her head.

"Not at all, Ms. Potts." Jarvis replied with hesitation. "But perhaps I could better explain if you were to join me in Mr. Stark's workshop. And may I strongly suggest you use the elevator given the current condition of the main stairwell?" He offered.

Pepper immediately picked up her tea and walked towards the now open elevator car that would take her down to Tony's workshop. As she entered the workshop one of the computer terminals powered up and she walked towards it, quickly sitting down in the chair in front of it. She noticed the broken glass near the stairwell door and absently reminded herself that she needed to replace the glass panels next week. Broken glass in Tony's workshop was a fairly common occurrence, so she really didn't dwell on the cause. She had bigger fish to fry at the moment.

"This is the Mark III suit that Mr. Stark is currently traveling within." Jarvis explained as the engineering sketches of the Mark III lit up the terminal's screen.

Pepper's eyes grew wide at the sight of the red and gold suit now on the screen, and she tried her best to keep her voice low and calm in response. "You mean he's flying inside the suit." She said quietly in more of a statement than a question to the AI.

"That **is** correct, Ms Potts" Jarvis calmly confirmed. "And current telemetry from the Mark III indicates that Mr. Stark is traveling at Mach 1.7 and is currently in route for Malibu. ETA is approximately 7.35 hours based on his current speed."

Pepper continued to look at the schematics in amazement. "This is how Tony got out of that cave in Afghanistan isn't it, Jarvis?"

Pepper suddenly heard the swish of air behind her and she turned to see the floor panels about 30 feet from her slide apart exposing a part of the sub-basement beneath the workshop. She quickly walked over and peered into the sub-basement as the lights brightened in the sub-basement, and she saw a welded and braised version of an iron suit that she quickly assumed was the Mark I. Next to the Mark I was the sleek, silver Mark II which in appearance was very similar to the Mark III but she assumed that it had been created without weaponry.

"The Mark I is a **replica** of the one Mr. Stark built in the cave and used in his escape from the Ten Rings terrorist group. Mr. Stark had to abandon the damaged remains of the original Mark I in the desert during his escape." Jarvis explained "And the Mark II is the prototype for the Mark III."

"Leave it to Tony to build an arc reactor and a flying metal suit using stone knives and bear skins." She said quietly, turning away from the suits as the floor panels once again slid securely back into place.

"Actually, Ms. Potts, Mr. Stark used parts from SI weapons that the terrorists had in their possession to build the original miniaturized Arc Reactor and the Mark I." Jarvis offered in correction "But your stone knives and bear skins analogy is essentially correct."

"I am surprised that the US Military hasn't tried to intercept Tony considering he is essentially a UFO to them now." She commented, returning to sit down in the chair in front of the terminal screen quickly putting her head in her hands at the thought of Tony being shot down by friendly fire.

"Actually two USAF F-22 Raptors did intercept Mr. Stark one hour and thirty-three minutes ago and engaged the Mark III in air to air combat." Jarvis reported.

"What!" Pepper cried out unable to stop her sudden outburst.

"And from intercepted air to ground conversations, Colonel Rhodes was able to keep the F-22's from destroying the Mark III." Jarvis continued to explain as Pepper closed her eyes in disbelief. "Unfortunately, one of the F-22s did crash as the result of the battle, but Mr. Stark was able to save the pilot's life when his chute failed to deploy. The Mark III did sustain some minor damage in the brief battle which has unfortunately resulted in my communications link being lost to the suit. However, the medical sensor damage appears to be the result of an armor piercing missile fired by a tank during Mr. Stark's ground battle with the terrorists earlier in the day."

Pepper's eyes snapped open wide upon hearing the words 'armor piercing missile'. "Jarvis, I am assuming that Mr. Stark has reported his physical status to you since the medical sensors were damaged."

"Of course, Ms. Potts." The AI replied quickly "But Mr. Stark has been known in the past to not accurately report his physical condition on occasion."

"On occasion." Pepper quietly agreed "Please continue to track the Mark III and keep me updated on Tony's ETA."

"Of course, Ms. Potts" Jarvis agreed quietly "The on board computer that is currently in control of the Mark III is a clone of myself who will continue to protect and monitor the suit and Mr. Stark's well being until he returns home to Malibu."

Pepper knew that Jarvis was trying to comfort her in his own way and she was grateful as always to the AI for his 'human' side. She looked up at the ceiling and smiled tiredly towards one of the security cameras. "Thanks, Jarvis." She said sincerely, laying her head down on the desk briefly. "Please patch me in to Colonel Rhodes, Jarvis."

"At once, madam." Jarvis obeyed and quickly connected with Colonel Rhodes' personal cell phone, one that had of course been upgraded by Tony in order to prevent hacking.

"Jimmy" Pepper said quietly "Are you someplace where you can talk to me privately?"

"Give me a sec, Pep." He said and she could hear a door closing and heavy footsteps in the background. "Yeah, I can talk now."

"Just what has your little brother gotten himself into this time?" she asked quietly concern permeating her tone "Because he is scaring me to death at the moment."

"Dammit!" Rhodey exclaimed nearly dropping the phone "That's what I was about to ask you."

"Well, if it wasn't for his com link failure, I still wouldn't even know about his earlier encounter with your F-22s because Tony had Jarvis hide this little trip of his to Afghanistan from me."

"Boy, that's great." Rhodey replied dejectedly as he continued to walk down a hallway, his steps quickening. "I know we're in deep shit now if Tony had Jarvis lock you out of this."

"Jimmy…I'm really worried about Tony." She said her tone low and serious.

"So am I." Rhodey replied equally as serious. "Look, Tony said he was headed back to Malibu before we were cut off, so let me know when he gets there. I am going to talk to my CO right now and beg some personal time off from him so I can talk to Tony in person. And I want you to be there when I do, Pep. But considering what has just happened, I doubt very seriously that I will be able to get to Malibu before tomorrow at the very earliest."

"I understand." She replied weakly, the realization of what was happening to them all suddenly weighing her down.

"Hey." He said softly, concerned about the obvious change in her tone. "You OK?"

"I….I'm fine, Jimmy." She finally got out.

"No, you're not." he responded quickly. "I know you have a ton of crap going on with you right now. And before you ask, yes, I've seen those pictures of you and Tony on the internet."

"Yeah, you and about four million of our closet friends have seen those pictures by now." Pepper replied her voice quiet and somber.

"Well, look at it this way, Pepper." Rhodey replied with a small chuckle "The way you two have been dancing around each other for years, it was only a matter of time before the world had concrete proof of your relationship."

"Trouble is, Jimmy" Pepper started "I'm not exactly sure what our relationship really is at the moment."

"You know what?!" Rhodey said sternly, finally fed up with the constant denial from both Pepper and Tony about their feelings towards each other. "This is what makes me want to take **both** of you over my big brother knee sometimes." The stress of the current situation was spurring him on now as he spoke. "That man has been in love with you since the first day he met you, but he was just too stubborn to admit it, and too chicken and fucked up to do anything about it that wouldn't have forced you to leave him." He continued lecturing her. "And **you **have probably loved him for more years than you would ever admit to anyone, especially yourself." His voiced suddenly lowered a little. "You know my great grandma use to say that things happen for a reason. So maybe Tony's kidnapping has forced the little dweeb to grow up a little, stop drinking his life away, and made him more into the man that you could see yourself being with." Rhody continued his voice softening even more. "And whether or not **either **of you want to admit it; those photos prove that you two **are** in a relationship, no matter what **either** of you say."

"It's just that Tony has changed so much since he came home from Afghanistan, Jimmy." Pepper said sadly "And I'm so confused about not only how he feels towards me, but how I feel towards him at the moment. And those pictures all over the internet and the hundred plus voice mails on my Blackberry certainly aren't helping my emotional well-being at the moment either."

"Whether you want to believe it or not, Afghanistan changed you too, Pepper. Not many people could have run a Fortune 500 company successfully for three months under the conditions you were working under, but you found a way to do it. You're a strong person, Pepper. And you know you don't really give a shit about what the world thinks of you as long as you know you're doing the right thing. That's one of the reasons why you're still with Tony." Rhodey assured her softly. He paused briefly before continuing. "Look, I found out that Tony not only took out a bunch of terrorist scumbags today, but he also blew up a pretty large ammo dump including a Jericho Missile assembly too. Oh and by the way, according to my intel, he also saved about 50 civilians from almost certain death at the same time. So don't you give up on my little brother being your knight in shining armor just yet, OK?"

"I won't, Jimmy." she promised, a small smile creeping onto her face at his choice of words "I'll call you after he gets home."

"OK." He replied "Talk to you soon." He said as he hung up.

Pepper folded her arms, laying them on top of the desk as she rested her head on her arms trying her best to relax her shoulders and neck. She felt the beginnings of a headache now. She hadn't eaten yet and she knew that her low blood sugar was part of the reason for the headache. She had lost a lot of weight during the three months that Tony was gone and she still had yet to recover from it, so any drop in her blood sugar was really noticeable to her now.

"Ms. Potts" Jarvis announced "I have taken the liberty to order breakfast in for you. It should be delivered within 15 minutes."

Pepper raised her head up from the desk and smiled. "Thank you for taking care of me, Jarvis."

"Always my pleasure, Madam." The AI replied cheerfully "Might I also suggest that you lie down and relax until your breakfast arrives. Your blood sugar levels appear to be quite low this morning."

"You're right, Jarvis." She said forcing herself to get up and turned to walk towards the stairs.

Suddenly the elevator doors opened to her right. "May I suggest taking the elevator instead, Ms. Potts?" Jarvis said quietly.

"Good idea." She replied turning quickly and stepped into the elevator. She hated feeling weak, but she also knew that walking up two flights of stairs was going to be just a waste of energy that she really didn't have to spare this morning. "Thanks again, Jarvis."

"Ms. Potts" Jarvis began in what Pepper recognized was full lecture mode "I know we have had this discussion in the past about your eating habits, but given your metabolism and your fairly recent weight loss, you **must **realize the importance of calorie intake for you."

"Yes, mom." She said with a small smile, finding it always ironic that an AI would know how to take better care of her than she would. While Tony was held captive, it had been left to her by Tony's attorneys to run SI in Tony's place. Her acting as Tony's proxy had really angered Stane. Pepper had never trusted Stane in the past and his aggressive actions towards her in trying to wrest control of SI from her in Tony's absence had proven to her just how right she was in her initial assessment of Stane.

So Pepper had spent a lot of her time at the mansion during Tony's absence because somehow she just felt safer there and away from SI and Stane. Jarvis and the bots were always there to support her as she struggled to keep Tony's company going against greater and greater odds as the days, weeks, and then months continued to pass without any word on him.

Jarvis had tattled on her numerous times to both Happy and Rhodey during those three months when she wasn't eating properly. Happy would sit down and eat with her at least twice every day trying to make sure she got enough to eat. And Rhodey would call her at all hours of the day and night trying to make sure that she was taking care of herself. Rhodey's sisters even called her on a regular basis too from Tennessee following up for their brother and doing their best to make sure that she took care of herself.

She slowly walked out of the elevator and into the living area. She sat down heavily on the large couch and swung her feet up. She immediately felt the heat from one of the HVAC vents on her. Jarvis knew she was cold natured and had decided to turn up the heat for her this morning.

"Thanks, Jarvis." She said looking up at the ceiling when she suddenly remembered Rhodey's words. "Can you run a cross check and locate any invoices that include the Jericho? I certainly didn't sign off on any, and as far as I know, R&D hasn't released the missile out for production yet. I'm just not sure now where the demo Jericho that went with Tony to Afghanistan really ended up. Mr. Stane had offered to take care of getting the missile assembly reloaded on the jet, but at the time I was too busy to follow up on him actually doing it."

"At once, madam." Jarvis replied.

Pepper closed her eyes and tried to relax. SI's R&D department was large, but through the years Pepper had gotten to know most of the R&D personnel. However, there were several groups in R&D that worked primarily for Stane that she simply didn't know as well as she would like. And with Tony's announcement that SI no longer would make weapons anymore, she had suspected that Stane and his R&D groups were somehow continuing their weapons development well beyond what SI was already contractually obligated to fulfill. She just couldn't prove anything at the moment.

"Ms. Potts." Jarvis said quietly "It seems that a review of the manifest from Mr. Stark's jet failed to account for the Jericho missile when the jet returned to LAX from Afghanistan. It appears that a man named 'T. Apollyon' had signed for the missile assembly when it was still on the ground in Afghanistan, and that the transfer had been approved by Mr. Stane."

"Any idea who this Apollyon could be, Jarvis?" She said staring up at the ceiling thoughtfully.

"None, madam." The AI replied "I have cross checked that name across all known customers and contacts, and I have found no record of anyone by that name."

Pepper was silent as she suddenly recalled a distant memory.

"Ms. Potts." Jarvis said quietly "The name Apollyon is Greek for 'The Destroyer'."

Pepper winced. It was Sunday school when she was a child when she had heard that name before. "Revelations." She said flatly.

"That is correct, Ms. Potts." Jarvis confirmed "The verse is 9:11."

Pepper squeezed her eyes shut tightly. "911, Jarvis. Somehow I get the feeling that whoever this Apollyon is, they certainly had some very non-peaceful intentions for the Jericho."

As she lay on the couch with her eyes closed, she found herself tensing up even more as she realized that Mr. Stane was most-likely double dealing weapons to known terrorist organizations. She had no idea how or even if she was going to tell Tony about her suspicions. Even though she had always been mistrustful of Obadiah's intentions regarding Tony, Tony had always given her the impression that he trusted Stane implicitly.

Suddenly Pepper's eyes snapped open as she heard a metallic clang on the table beside her. She looked over and watched both Dummy and Butterfingers setting up her breakfast on the table. She sat up quickly.

"Thank you guys for breakfast." She said tenderly patting Dummy's pincher as he daintily handed her a napkin. She opened the Styrofoam container and breathed in the heavenly scent of veggie lover's omelet from one of her favorite restaurants in Malibu. She knew that Jarvis must have offered them a big tip both for the early hour order and the quick delivery from the restaurant. "Thank you Jarvis for ordering this for me."

"You are quite welcome, Ms. Potts." Jarvis replied as the bots beeped noisily at her as they turned and rolled away towards the elevator. "You are required to finish both the omelet and the orange juice. Then I would suggest a short nap in order for your body to digest the meal and your blood sugar levels to stabilize."

"Yes, sir." She replied with a smile taking a huge bit of the omelet. She closed her eyes and hummed in contentment as she ate. Maybe a nap would be a good idea. She hadn't slept more than three hours last night in between finishing up at the Hall and trying to find Tony afterwards. And without her mandatory six hours of sleep, she knew she would crash and burn later during the day, and she knew she couldn't afford to do that today, not with everything going on around her.

It suddenly occurred to her that Tony could very well be injured when he returned to the mansion. She quickly went over a list of first aid supplies in her mind that she wanted to have on hand when he returned. "Jarvis?"

"Yes, madam." The AI replied.

"Please make sure the bots get the PMS out and ready to go so you can scan Tony when he gets home. You know how he is about going to the hospital." She said quietly.

"At once, madam." Jarvis eagerly replied. "Since I helped design the armor myself, I am certain that there has been no penetration of the armor, but there is however a high likelihood of severe bruising and possible broken bones at the point of impact depending on the proximity of the tank to the Mark III. The PMS scan will detect any such injuries."

Pepper thought back to when Tony designed the medical scanner. He had teasingly told her that he designed it for her to help with her pre-menstrual cycle symptoms. That of course had started a major argument between the two of them, with Tony eventually apologizing enough so that she would allow him and Jarvis to use the PMS on her. She was forced to admit at the time that his invention had been amazingly accurate in finding two long mended bone fractures she had when she was a teenager. As usual Tony had insisted that the scanner be called the PMS in her honor, and the name had somehow stuck.

"Jarvis, please wake me in three hours or if something changes with Tony." She said finishing both her omelet and her orange juice. She lay back on the couch and closed her eyes as she felt her headache starting to ease. She felt some of her tension dissipate now that her stomach was full. She soon felt herself drift away to sleep.

"Ms. Potts." Jarvis called out to her quietly, rousing her from her nap. "It has been three hours since you fell asleep. I trust you slept well."

Pepper stretched out her arms over her head "Yes, very well. Thank you Jarvis." She replied sitting up on the couch. "What's Tony's ETA to Malibu?"

"At current speed, three hours forty-three minutes." The AI responded quickly.

Pepper got up and turned towards the elevator. "Jarvis, I'll be in my office attempting to return some of my missed calls and emails. Please keep me informed of Mr. Stark's progress home."

"Of course, madam." Jarvis complied "And just so you will know, Mr. Stark has already seen the photos of you dancing with him at the Firefighter's Gala last evening."

Pepper rolled her eyes at the ceiling of the elevator. "I bet he just laughed about them."

"No, Ms. Potts." The AI replied "He was most concerned about what your reaction to the photographs would be. He had hoped that you weren't going to be too upset when you saw them."

Pepper didn't quite know how to process the fact that Tony was worried about her feelings instead of his own image as an international playboy being blown away in the short span of 14 photographs. She would have never expected such a reaction out of him. She felt her heart clinch in her chest at the thought of him now putting her well being above his own.

She spent the next three hours on the phone and on her laptop, doing her best to run damage control as she responded to the 492 emails that she had gotten already this morning, as well as the 224 voice mails. She had received voice mails from all but one of the SI Board members already this morning, all of them surprisingly congratulating her and Tony on their new 'relationship' and wishing them well. Some had even asked when their engagement announcement could be expected. It seemed that everyone knew more about her relationship with Tony than she did at the moment.

She sent out pre-emptive emails to the major gossip media with fair warnings about them publishing any negative press regarding the photos telling them all of SI's intent to prosecute the photographer as well as anyone who used those photos to her, Tony's or SI's detriment

She also had a long conference call with the on-call attorneys and PR personnel for SI. SI Legal quickly promised to begin tracing the origins of the cell phone pictures immediately. They had all discussed courses of action to take against the photographer when they found them. PR expressed their opinion that the photographs would actually have a very positive impact on SI in general and both her and Tony in particular citing the stability of their past work relationship. SI Legal has concurred in its opinion that her and Tony being in a relationship would be taken as a sign of stability within SI. It now seemed that everyone she had talked to this morning was quite comfortable with them being a relationship. That consensus of approval still surprised Pepper.

She was on a call with the one Board member who had not already called her today when Jarvis flashed a message on her computer screen that Tony had just arrived back at the mansion. Pepper politely but quickly ended the call and literally ran down the stairs towards the workshop. She slowed her approach on the stairs and gingerly stepped through the broken glass. She had been so busy with the phone calls and emails that she had forgotten to get the bots to sweep up the glass. As she entered the room, she overheard Jarvis fussing at Tony and Tony fussing back at Jarvis as the suit bots frantically tried to remove the armor from Tony's body. She slowed her approach taking in the chaotic scene before her with a mix of caution and concern as she quickly noticed what appeared to be bullet holes in the armor. So much for Jarvis' claim of the strength of the armor. She heard Tony's cries of pain mixed with his curses as the suit bots continued to pull and yank on the armor. She couldn't help the look of concern now on her face.

"Please be gentle, it's my first time." Tony remarked with a strained smirk as the suit bots continued to try their best to remove his armor but without success.

She continued walking slowly towards him, noting the stressed look on his face. "What's going on here?" she asked not able to keep the concern out of her voice.

"Let's face it." He tried to joke as he turned to see the worried expression on her face match her voice "This isn't the worst thing you've ever caught me doing."

"Are those bullet holes?" she asked incredulously.

"No, just dents." He replied, struggling once again with the suit bots.

"Jarvis" Pepper called out loudly "Why can't you remove the suit?"

"Two reasons, Ms. Potts." The AI replied tersely "Mr. Stark refuses to stand still in order to allow the suit bots to operate properly and two of the mechanical locks in the suit are proving not readily releasable."

"Everyone freeze!" Pepper yelled loudly and all the bots immediately ceased their movement. Tony too stopped moving and stood there looking at her in complete amazement. In the now uncomfortable silence of the workshop she could hear Dummy's long, loud whistle in the background obviously quite impressed with her taking control of the chaos at least for the moment. Pepper had to suddenly stop herself from laughing at the ridiculousness of entire situation. "Exactly where are these locks located on the suit, Jarvis?" She asked quickly removing her shoes, knowing that she would need to climb up on the platform with Tony in order to pry the locks open. She walked over to one of the large rolling tool boxes. "Jarvis?"

"A keystone, slotted screw driver will do just nicely." Jarvis responded knowing exactly what information she was asking the AI for.

Pepper picked out the proper screwdriver and padded on stocking feet back to where Tony stood on the platform. He was watching her intently now, and she noticed that his eyes had started to darken as they roved over her legs and he started to shift uncomfortably on the platform. Some things never change, she thought quickly to herself as she climbed up onto the platform with him, holding onto one of the suit bots for support.

"Where Jarvis?" she asked as she stood precariously behind him. The platform was quite small and she found herself pressed up close behind him in order to keep from falling off.

"At the small of the back you will notice a slot approximately one inch in length. That is the release for the lower half of the suit. The slot should be turned counter-clockwise one full turn in order to release the lock."

"Jarvis" Pepper said as she studied the area. "This area is pretty scuffed up." She suddenly felt Tony turn as if trying to look behind him at what she was doing causing her to quickly wrap both arms around his waist in order to keep herself stable. "Tony!" she yelled as he visibly winced "Stop moving, or so help me I am going to take you down with me when I fall off!"

Tony froze immediately and Pepper quickly released her hold on him. "OK, Jarvis, here goes." She said as she inserted the tip of the screwdriver into the damaged slot. She struggled but managed to turn the release one full turn immediately hearing a 'pop' as the lock released.

"The remaining lock is located four inches below the base of Mr. Stark's neck, in the midline running between the shoulders." Jarvis patiently instructed her.

Pepper stood up on her toes as she inserted the tip of the screwdriver in the slot that she had located in an area that was filled with small dents, resembling dozens of hail dents. This area had obviously been the target of some fairly heavy duty artillery of some kind. But luckily the armor had held. She turned the screw driver as hard as she could, but she couldn't budge the slot at all. She tried again with both hands. "Tony" she breathed heavily onto his neck with her sudden exertion, not realizing that she was doing it. "Can you lower your shoulders? I'm standing on my toes back here and I can't quite get the leverage I need to turn the screwdriver."

She immediately noticed that the skin on his neck at the base of his dark curls of hair had become pebbled in goose bumps where her hot breath had traveled over it as she spoke to him. She had no idea that just her breath alone could have such an effect on him, and she suddenly found herself resisting the strong urge to lean up and press a kiss into those dark curls. 'Oh god!' she thought to herself quickly tamping down the strong feeling 'What on earth am I thinking?' she fussed at herself. Given the seriousness of the current situation, only Tony would have the ability to derail her thoughts so quickly and completely.

She took a deep breath as his shoulders began to lower and suddenly the scent of Tony's cologne, mixed with sweat, oil, and something she could only describe as 'Tony' entered her nose and her brain at the same time almost causing her to drop the screwdriver. Quite apparently Tony had the same effect on her as she did him. And that knowledge was most disconcerting considering exactly where she was standing at the moment. As she struggled to keep her balance she felt him reach back with his left arm and gently wrap his armored hand around her left thigh in order to help steady her. She bit down on her bottom lip in order not to be distracted again from her task by the feel of his hand on her leg. She carefully re-inserted the tip of the screwdriver and put her weight into turning the screwdriver with both hands. She suddenly felt the slot start to turn and held her breath as she continued to bear down on the screwdriver's handle. Slowly it turned one full turn and she heard another 'pop'.

"You did it, Pep." Tony said softly as he stood back up to his full height on the platform, letting go of her leg. "Jarvis, help get Ms. Potts back down off the platform before she falls off."

Dummy immediately rolled to her rescue extending his arm up to help safely lower her to the floor.

"Thank you, Dummy." She said patting him on the head as he turned to wheel away from her, once again taking his place alongside Butterfingers who was currently on fire duty at Jarvis' request.

"Apparently, the release and removal system for the suit requires some updating." Jarvis commented as Pepper rolled her eyes turning to walk back towards the tool chest.

"What makes you say that, Jarvis?" Tony replied standing completely still as the suit bots began removing pieces of the armor storing them under the floor panels. "I was sorta happy with the way Pepper was cuddling with me up here."

Pepper had walked back to the tool chest to put the screwdriver back in the drawer and upon hearing his last remark slammed the drawer closed with a loud bang as she shook her head in disgust. He really was going to be the death of her unless she killed him first. She whirled around and looked up at him, their eyes locking.

"Too soon, I guess?" He said a shy smile on his face immediately placing both hands in front of his crotch area covering what she suspected was the result of her touch from earlier. His under suit was skin tight, and she had to force herself to keep looking at his eyes and not down at his muscular body.

"Way too soon, Mr. Stark." Pepper replied a deep frown now etched upon her face.

One of the suit bots began pulling on the back piece of the suit as they continued to lock eyes. "Owwww!" Tony cried out suddenly in agony.

Pepper forgot all about being mad at him upon hearing the genuine pain in his voice, knowing that that area of his back was where the tank had hit his armor with its armor piercing missile. "Jarvis, lower the platform immediately!" She ordered the AI.

"At once, madam." Jarvis replied as the platform immediately began to lower.

Pepper quickly moved behind Tony and gently pried the dented piece of armor from his back. She felt Tony suck in a quick breath and then hold it against the pain.

"Can you walk?" she asked him as he nodded curtly. She held onto his waist as she slowly steered him towards the PMS which Dummy had wheeled over closer to them now that they were done dismantling the suit.

Pepper helped him lay down on the examination table and gently pulled his legs up onto the table for him. "Don't move Tony. Jarvis is going to scan you now."

"It's just a couple of bruises." Tony said between clenched teeth.

"Just a couple." Pepper said sarcastically, earning her an eye roll from Tony.

Pepper caught his eye and gave him a small smile. She noticed that he immediately relaxed and managed to give her a small smile in return.

"Jarvis?" Pepper asked suddenly impatient with the uncertainty of Tony's condition. "Does he need to go to the hospital?"

Tony reached out and quickly grabbed her hand. He looked at her, his bourbon eyes pleading with her blue ones. "No hospital." He begged.

"Mr. Stark has suffered extensive bruising in the lower to mid left back. This includes both muscular bruising as well as bruising of the four lowest ribs in that area. His left kidney appears to have narrowly escaped injury. Mr. Stark also exhibits symptoms of moderate to severe dehydration as well as low blood sugar. Recommended treatment includes immediate hydration with electrolytes coupled with liquid dietary supplements. The bruised areas will require direct application of cold packs for the next 24 hours followed by heat treatments." Jarvis reported quickly.

She gently pulled him up into a sitting position on the examination table. Pepper opened and handed him a lemon-lime Gatorade and he quickly gulped it down. She opened another for him and handed it to him as she took the empty bottle from his hands. "I know you're thirsty, but you need to slow down just a little, Tony."

He shook his head and proceeded to drain the second bottle somewhat slower than the first.

"But first things first." Pepper said taking his hand again to help him off the table. "You need a shower. You smell…."

"Sexy…masculine…..rugged?." He quickly cut in a small smile breaking out on his face as he glanced quickly over to her as they walked slowly to the elevator.

"Actually, **terrible**." She replied smiling over at him as she caught his eye. "Jarvis have the bots bring up Gatorades and Ensures from the pantry. Gatorades at room temp and the Ensures need to be slightly chilled, not cold. I will also need one of the small ice chests filled with small bags of soft ice for cold packs."

"At once, Ms. Potts." Jarvis replied as the elevator slowly moved up towards the third floor.

When the elevator door opened, they slowly walked out as Pepper immediately steered them towards Tony's bedroom. Tony suddenly froze.

"Not there." Tony said looking down at the floor. "Somewhere else."

Pepper still couldn't quite understand Tony's refusal to sleep in his bedroom. She suspected that Jarvis knew, but there was only so much Jarvis was willing to share with her out of respect for the privacy of his creator. Pepper nodded and turned them in the other direction. She knew that all of the other guest rooms had relatively small bathrooms, except for the one that she used when she stayed overnight in the mansion. That was one of the reasons why she chose that particular bedroom as hers. And since her bathroom was also the only one of the guest rooms that had a large double walk-in shower with two benches, it seemed the only logical place to put Tony for a shower.

"Will you be OK to stand here for a few seconds while I get you some clean clothes?" She asked stopping him and letting go of his arm.

"Sure." He replied quietly as she quickly turned and walked into his bedroom.

She pulled open one drawer pulling out a pair of black sweatpants and then another drawer pulling out some boxer briefs for him to wear. Since she was going to ice down his back, she didn't bother getting out a shirt for him to wear. Tucking his clothes under her right arm, she quickly walked back out into the hall way rejoining Tony and putting her left arm around his waist to help support him as they slowly continued their walk.

As they walked further down the hallway Tony quickly realized where they were headed and he stopped suddenly. "It's OK, I don't need a lot of room to take a shower. Any of these other guest rooms will do."

She gently tugged on his waist and he let himself be led once again slowly down the hall. "My room has the largest shower with benches. You're going to need the extra room and someplace to sit down."

Surprisingly, he didn't fight her. She could feel his body weaken as they walked.

As if on cue, Dummy wheeled up next to them carrying a box full of Gatorades and Ensures. Pepper quickly grabbed a Gatorade, twisted the cap off, and handed it to Tony.

"Please put the box in my bedroom." She told the bot as he quickly sped off down the hall way. Within seconds, Dummy emerged from the bedroom beeping at Pepper as he passed them in the hallway, headed for the freight elevator. "Thank you, Dummy." She called out behind her as she steered Tony into her bedroom.

Butterfingers rolled into the bedroom behind them carrying an ice chest full of small bags of ice for Tony's back. He beeped once and quickly left the bedroom as Pepper patted him on the head in thanks as he wheeled quickly past them.

As they stopped in front of the bathroom door, Tony was just finishing the bottle of Gatorade, and she had noticed that he was slowing down a little more as he drank the room temperature liquid.

"After your shower, I want you to drink at least one Ensure before I ice your back." She said taking the empty bottle from him. "You need more than just carbs right now."

"OK" he agreed quietly as they entered the bathroom.

She looked over at him and noticed that his eyes were once again glued to the floor. Then it suddenly hit her. In the years that she had known this man, she had never once seen him ashamed or embarrassed about anything. She suddenly remembered that the last time he had used his bedroom was to bed the reporter from Vanity Fair just before he left for Afghanistan. She now knew that it had been shame that had kept him away from his bedroom since he had returned home from Afghanistan. And now he was obviously both embarrassed and ashamed at being in her personal bathroom.

These new revelations made it hard to keep her emotions in check as she took his hand and led him into the shower and pushed him gently down onto the closest marble bench. She noticed that he still refused to meet her eyes. She reached out and gently ran her fingers along his shoulder feeling for the zippers of his body suit when she suddenly felt his large hands close gently around hers.

"I got this Pep." He said quietly and she looked down at him quickly in surprise. "I know that giving your boss a shower isn't in your job description."

Pepper couldn't help herself as her eyes misted over at his words. She cleared her throat quietly and gathered strength for what she was about to say. "Tony, you do need to realize that I'm not in here helping you as part of my job duties….I'm in here as your **friend**….because that's what friends do." She slowly entwined their fingers and gave his hand a small squeeze.

He slowly tilted his head up to look at her and his eyes sought hers. "Thank you" He began softly, his bourbon eyes sincere. "for being here with me…and for being such a good friend to me."

She smiled at him doing her best to blink away the beginnings of tears at his words as he tenderly squeezed her hand, quickly moving her eyes away from his and back down to his body suit. She cleared her throat again. "Now, how do I get this off of you?"

"You don't know how many years I've waited for you to ask me that question, Ms. Potts." He said, the gentle tease coming back into his voice as he slowly let go of her hands and moved them to the Velcro flap which was hiding the zippers.

She knew at that moment that he was now doing his best to make this less awkward for both of them. "In your dreams, Mr. Stark." She replied using one of her standard remarks.

"Almost every night." He replied so quietly that she almost didn't hear him.

She sucked in a quick breath as her fingers began to work the zipper down across his chest slowly. She wasn't at all sure if he had even intended for her to hear his comment. Those three words confirmed in her mind just how serious he was being about letting her know how he really felt about her. She had completely had finally unzipped the entire top section of the body suit. He winced as she pulled his left arm slowly out of the suit. As she pulled his right arm out of the suit she gently pulled the rest of the suit off of his back. What she saw made her own face contort in pain. On the left side of his lower back, she saw a bruise that was not only large but a dark shade of purple that had already turned black in places. "Oh, Tony." She said quietly as she gingerly laid her hand on his back.

"I'm guessing my back looks pretty bad, huh?" he said almost gritting his teeth in trying to get the words out.

"Yes it does." She said sadly as she gently pulled him up to stand and reaching down to the flap covering the zipper for the lower half of the body suit.

"Hey!" he said suddenly alarmed grabbing her hands quickly to still them. "I got this."

She stopped and looked up at him noting the worried expression on his face. "God, I hope you're not hiding some more bruises like the one on your back under the bottom half of the suit." She gently fussed.

He slowly let go of her hands and she suddenly dawned on her the real reason behind his hesitation to let her help with the lower part of the suit. "OK, then." She said smiling at him as she did her best to reassure him that everything was OK between them. "If you can get the suit pulled down far enough to get a towel over the Stark family jewels, then I can help you pull the suit off your legs. You know you won't be able to do that with those bruised ribs."

"Deal." He said with a small twinkle returning to his eyes as she handed him a towel and turned around in order to give him some privacy.

She heard him grunt several times in pain and had to hold herself in place in order to keep from turning back around to help him.

"Uh….I'm ready now." He said hesitantly after a few seconds.

She turned to see him still standing, the towel wrapped around his waist tightly.

She immediately kneeled in front of him reaching up along his right leg under the towel until she found the edge of the suit and gently pulled it down about six inches. She repeated the process with the left leg. She had to concentrate in order to keep her eyes focused on the towel in front of her, ignoring the obvious tenting of the towel. It took her a few seconds of gentle tugging down both legs before she had the suit pulled down around his ankles.

"You can sit down now, Tony." She said as he sat down gingerly on the bench. She noticed that he placed both hands on top of his crotch after he sat down in an effort to hide the obvious pup tent he had developed.

She pulled the suit off of his feet in one smooth pull and threw the suit bottom to rest next to the top part of the suit on the floor outside the shower. She stood up and moved the body wash, shampoo, and a wash rag next to him on the bench. She handed him the detachable shower head. She then placed a large bath towel on the hook next to the bench within easy reach of him. And finally she placed his clothes on the other hook.

"I'll be right outside the bathroom if you need me." She said picking up the pieces of the suit and walking outside the bathroom making sure to leave the door open so she could hear him if he needed help with anything.

"Jarvis, warm please." Tony called out as the water turned on.

Pepper could hear a few grunts of pain as he showered, but soon only the sound of water running could be heard through the doorway. She leaned against the door jam for a few moments, just enjoying the soothing sound of the running water and the silence of the bedroom. It was the first peaceful moment she had had since she had woken up from her nap.

"Jarvis?" she said quietly after a few minutes.

"Yes, Madam." The AI responded quickly.

"How are Tony's vitals?" she asked.

"They are improving rapidly with his re-hydration." Jarvis replied.

"This body suit needs to be redesigned in order to allow better cooling and wicking abilities for Tony, Jarvis." She noted solemnly knowing for a fact that this was not his last flight within the Mark III. "And you need to add some sort of mechanism for hydration while he's in the suit, maybe something along the lines of an IV drip."

"Agreed, madam." The AI concurred. "I will begin to create design modifications for Mr. Stark's review and approval."

"Thank you, Jarvis." She said as she put the body suit into the laundry shoot. "And please have that cleaned and disinfected."

"At once, Madam." Jarvis replied then quickly added "Mr. Stark is now finished with his shower."

Pepper heard the water turn off in the shower and she had to almost physically hold herself back from walking into the bathroom to check on him in the silence that followed. To her surprise within just a few minutes he slowly walked out of the bathroom.

"I'll head back down to the workshop to sleep." He said quietly, not looking at her.

"Like hell you will!" she said firmly. "I'm not letting you out of my sight until I'm sure that you are going to be OK." She walked up to him and nudged him gently in the shoulder to make a point as he staggered slightly at her touch "And since you're clean now, I'm going to let you sleep in my bed."

He jerked his head up and his eyes met hers, a surprised look on his face.

"I promise I won't try anything." She teased with a small smile.

"Hey, a guy can dream can't he." he teased back as she took his hand and pulled him gently towards the bed.

"Now get in before I change my mind." She replied pulling down the comforter and top sheet for him as she guided him down into a sitting position on the bed. She picked up the bottle of extra strength Tylenol from the night table next to the bed and shook out two caplets into her hand as she handed him a bottle of vanilla Ensure. "This is the price you pay for being a hero."

He snapped his head up to meet her eyes as he took the caplets from her, a question clearly written on his face.

"Of course I called Jimmy after I managed to out-protocol Jarvis." She said quietly as she watched him wash down the Tylenol with the Ensure setting the now empty can on the night table. "Please don't ever lock me out again, Tony." She paused as the pent up emotions of the morning caught up with her. "I was so worried about you, not knowing what had happened to you. It was like…..like I had lost you all over again."

She knew that she had probably said too much and moved quickly in order to turn away from him not wanting to break down in front of him. But he was faster than she was and he quickly reached out to grab both her hands in his, holding her gently but firmly in place in front of him. "I'm so sorry, Pepper." He apologized in a quiet voice "I wasn't sure just how things were going to turn out and I sure as hell didn't want you sucked into the political and legal mess with me if things went badly."

She sniffled once trying to hold back her tears, still refusing to look at him. She looked down at her shoeless feet as she carefully formed her next words. "No matter what you think, Tony, I have already been sucked into this mess with you." She said quietly. "Locking me out just makes it that much harder for me to have your back when you don't let me know what's going on." She slowly raised her head up to look at him in order to gauge his reaction to her words. To her amazement the look on his face now was one of undisguised love. Her eyes widened as Tony's eyes caught and held her eyes.

"Are you sure about this, Pepper?" he asked softly, squeezing her hands tenderly his eyes still locked with hers.

"With what I've been through with you in the past 11 years, being in legal and political trouble is different how?" she said doing her best to add just a hint of teasing behind her words.

He suddenly smiled at her warmly and she slowly smiled back at him.

"Now lie down and turn over on your stomach so I can ice down your back. You know I have lots of other things to do today other than play nurse." She ordered as he slowly lay down on the bed and gingerly turned over onto his stomach.

Pepper reached into the ice chest next to the night table pulling out one ice bag and gently laying it on the bruised area on his back.

"Ugggh, shit that's cold!" he mumbled into her pillow.

"Stop being a baby." She said as she walked over to the desk powering up her laptop. "Fifteen minutes on and off for an hour and then I'll give you a break for a couple of hours."

"God, woman, but you're mean." He said quietly as he shifted his legs in apparent discomfort.

"I **can** be meaner, you know." She said a small smile breaking out on her face knowing that he couldn't see her. "After all I am the one doing triage from last night's dance." She quickly regretted mentioning the dance as his body immediately stilled.

She looked over at his still form on the bed and she could visibly make out a renewed tension throughout his body.

He slowly turned his head so he could look at her. "I'm sorry I left you alone after our dance." He said sadly. "When I went to the bar to get your martini, I found out that the bastards had my Jericho and I knew that I had to do something about it."

She hesitated to tell him how Stane had let the terrorists take the Jericho because she knew that he would never be able to rest and recover once he knew about Stane double dealing behind both their backs. Her silence suddenly filled the air between them.

"And I really wanted another dance with you, Pepper." He whispered so softly that she barely heard him.

She felt her emotions once again threatening to overtake her at his softly spoken confession, as she continued to fight to remain silent.

"Pepper…?" he said again a little louder.

She finally found the courage to look over at him. He had raised his head off the pillow now, desperately wanting her to look at him, his bourbon eyes nearly black with emotion as their eyes met across the room.

"I'm …..I'm sorry I forced you to dance with me But ….you looked just…. so beautiful in that blue dress that I just couldn't take my eyes off of you." He quietly explained. "I knew I had to do something to get your attention….and to get you close to me."

Another long moment of silence stretched between them as they continued to stare at one another. "Jarvis showed me the pictures that hit the internet of us dancing." He said weighing back carefully into the thick silence still between them "I can only imagine the mess those pictures caused for you…..and I'm sorry."

"Oh, Tony" she began, as her emotional walls began to crumble down around her. She quickly walked towards the bed suddenly wanting to make things right between them. "The only trouble those pictures have caused me is trying to keep up with all of the well-wishers and the 'it's about time' people that have been calling and emailing me since early this morning." She explained leaning down to him and reaching out to take his right hand. "It seems that everyone including all of the SI Board members are absolutely ecstatic that we shared that dance."

Pepper watched as his shoulders visibly sagged with relief at her words.

"So does that mean when we start dating, our stock will go up?" he asked tentatively as he began to stroke the back of her hand with his thumb.

She reached over and removed the bag of ice from his back, tossing it into the ice chest and standing up as he continued to hold her hand. "Well, some of the Board members are already convinced that our stock will open higher tomorrow because of those pictures." She said smiling down at him. "I guess we'll just have to wait to see what odds we get tomorrow from the Vegas odds makers on our chances of success."

After a few seconds of silence from him, he suddenly shifted in bed pulling her closer to him. "Promise me this, Ms. Potts. No matter what the odds, please never, ever give up on us." He softly pleaded pressing her hand to his lips quickly.

She slowly reached down with her free hand and tenderly brushed the hair back out of his eyes. "I promise, Mr. Stark, that I will never, ever give up on us." She replied sincerely as a huge smile lit up his entire face. She immediately smiled back at him knowing for a fact that no matter what happened from this moment on to them and between them, she would **never, ever** break that promise.


	7. Chapter 7

**Most of the characters in this story belong to Marvel Comics and whoever else has current legal ownership of Iron Man at the moment. No infringement on any corporate, business, or individual's rights is intended in any way. This story is not being written for profit, just for enjoyment.**

**Author's Notes:** A sincere thank you for all the reviews and PMs on this story of mine. I really do appreciate all of your support, encouragement, and kind words. And I am very happy that all of you have enjoyed this story so far. I have been really busy working on a big project for the past two months, and I regret that it's been such a long time between chapters. Hopefully Chapter 7 will have been worth the wait for you! **Please note that a rating change has occurred for this chapter: The rating for Chapter 7 is 'M'.**

**The Very Last First Time**

It was exactly one month and one day after Tony flew the nuke into the space portal that Pepper found him curled up in a ball on his Malibu mansion bed, drenched in sweat and screaming into his pillow. Jarvis had called her at work at 8:38 PM to report his unstable condition to her. She was working late, doing her dead level best to steer Stark Industries into the wind in the aftermath of the Chitauri invasion of New York. Her mind reluctantly regressed back into the recent past as she mindlessly gathered up her laptop and briefcase and quickly walked out of her office towards the parking garage. She remembered just how helpless and hopeless she felt as she watched Tony vanish into that space portal on that day not that long ago. And she also remembered dropping to her knees on the floor of the SI corporate jet and praying fervently for Tony's safety. Then in what could only be described as a small miracle and an answer to her prayers, Tony emerged from the space portal, and with Bruce's help managed to survive once again against the odds.

She had promised herself that she would cut back on her hours at work once she got Tony safely back home to Malibu from New York, and for the most part she had been keeping that promise, tonight being one of only a few exceptions. She had been spending more and more time with Tony at the mansion and she found herself seeing less and less of her condo as the days went by, not wanting to leave Tony alone any longer than absolutely necessary. The battle of New York had made it quite clear to her that every moment that she spent with Tony might be the last, and she was now determined to not only be with him as much as possible, but also make every moment she was with him count.

She had made up her mind this morning in the shower that she was going to sit down with Tony tonight and have a talk about their future plans together. She had even met with a realtor yesterday afternoon and had listed her condo for sale. He had been dropping some not so subtle Tony-like hints about cohabitation in the past few weeks, but as usual neither one of them would slow down long enough to have a serious conversation about either their present or future living arrangements. And even though he had not formally verbalized his feelings to her about wanting her to stay with him on a permanent basis, she could see the separation anxiety clearly written in his face whenever she would leave his mansion to go home for the night. She knew that she was going to be the one in their relationship to step out into the emotional shifting sands surrounding their cohabitation first.

As she sped towards the Malibu mansion grateful for light traffic on the PCH, she could feel her pulse begin to race as she asked Jarvis for minute by minute updates on Tony's condition. She called and left word with Bambi, her assistant to clear out her schedule for tomorrow because she knew that tonight was shaping up to be a long night at the Stark Mansion for her. Since tomorrow was Friday, her planned schedule had been relatively light anyway.

"My sensors indicate that Mr. Stark's blood pressure and pulse has risen dangerously high now. He is still unresponsive to my request for him to wake up." Jarvis reported solemnly.

She found herself slamming on the brakes as she pulled up to the mansion's front door, knowing that it would mean a faster trip to Tony's bedroom than parking underground in the mansion's garage.

"Just keep talking to him, Jarvis." Pepper pleaded as she ran from her Audi towards the front door. She knew that he hadn't been sleeping well since New York, but she had no idea that his nightmares had actually become dangerous for him. Leave it to Tony to order Jarvis not to let her know just how bad his nightmares had become. The fact that he was even in bed trying to sleep at this early hour meant that he must be exhausted.

She quickly ditched her heels and jacket at the front door, sprinting up the staircase and down the hall towards his bedroom. She flung open the door and found him curled up in the fetal position on his bed, his head buried under his pillow. She could now hear his muffled screams and see that he was violently shaking as he lay there drenched in his own sweat.

"Tony" she called out softly, finding it difficult not to yell his name, her concern for him increasing rapidly as her eyes quickly looked over his trembling body. "It's OK now." She reassured him laying down on the bed with him and quickly spooning up behind him on the bed. She wrapped her arms securely around him and she felt him start to react to her as his body suddenly stiffened in her arms, and his trembling started to subside.

"Sweetheart?" he asked tentatively, his voice still muffled by the pillow.

"I've got you, darling." She replied squeezing him tenderly as she felt him suddenly let out a huge sigh of relief.

They lay there a few minutes in silence. She could now feel his cold sweat slowly soaking through her thin blouse, and she suddenly had to fight back a shiver. She certainly didn't want him to mistake her involuntary shiver for fear of him, as she forced her body to remain still.

She could feel his body relax as he slowly uncurled himself, pressing his back gently into her in order to seek out the warm comfort of her body. She pulled him even closer to her as she wrapped her left arm around his boxer clad waist. She then gently tucked her left leg around both of his legs. Her right hand moved to the top of his head and she began to slowly card her fingers through his thick, sweaty hair, massaging his scalp with her fingertips as she did. She knew from past experience that this calmed him quickly.

She leaned her head down slightly and tenderly nuzzled his bare back between his shoulder blades. She heard him moan in response to her touch and she could feel his body relax even more into hers. As she continued to hold him, she could feel his breathing slowly returning to normal. She sighed deeply, inhaling the unique smell that was Tony, suddenly becoming very aware of the effect that the sweaty and moaning man in her arms was now having on her own body. She silently willed her libido to stand down as she planted a chaste kiss to his back.

At first it had been an accidental 'babe' and 'sweetheart' shared between them, but within a month after they started dating after the Expo, they both began using terms of endearment with each other when they were together in private. After so many years calling him 'Mr. Stark' and 'Tony', as well as various other names most of them containing the word 'ass' within them, she was hesitant at first to come up with any 'pet' names for him. After all old habits did die hard. But slowly she managed to come up with her own set of names for him. At the top of the list was 'honey', but she soon added 'sweetheart', 'darling', 'babe', with the occasional 'handsome' and even 'stud' used only in teasing, at least for right now. After all, Tony's ego had been stroked enough in the past. Tony had his own set of 'pet' names for her calling her 'babe', 'baby', 'sweetheart', 'gorgeous',

'beautiful', 'honey', and even used 'woman' occasionally in teasing just to see if he could get a rise out of her.

Even though they had been dating for almost eight months now and had shared many kisses and caresses, they had yet to make the big move into an intimate relationship. After so many years together, she could plainly see past all of his bravado and bullshit, and she knew that it was actually fear keeping Tony from taking that big step into intimacy with her. After returning from Afghanistan Tony had developed this irrational fear of karma…some sort of back payment for how badly he had treated people in the past. And she was fairly certain that he was now worried that she would treat him like he had treated all his one night stands if they slept together.

"I'm sorry that Jarvis had to call you, babe." He whispered into his pillow.

"Don't be sweetheart." She replied placing another tender kiss to his back as she pulled him even tighter to her. "Being in love with you means I get to help you when you need it, and not necessarily when you want it."

He pushed the pillow aside and let out the long, deep breath that he had been holding. "I know I don't tell you this nearly enough, but I am so in love with you, Pepper Potts." He then paused for a few seconds before continuing as she hugged him back in response to his words, not wanting to interrupt what else he was going to say. "But you and I **both** know that I don't deserve either you or your love." He finished sadly.

She sighed softly into his back again. His nightmares always left him so vulnerable and depressed. But she found that humor always seemed to help pull him out of his post-nightmare state quicker than anything else. "What about me? Maybe I'm the one that doesn't deserve your love." She teased gently. "You know that I'm not a very easy person to get along with." She continued as she felt him began to squirm in her arms as if trying to free himself from her grasp without hurting her. "After all, I am bossy, demanding, and have been known to raise anal retentiveness to new heights."

She slowly released her hold on him as he turned over to face her. He quickly reached out and cupped her cheeks in his hands tenderly. "I had **never **noticed that about you before. Not even the 'bossy' part." He teased back, softly stroking her cheeks with his thumbs. His bourbon eyes suddenly turned serious as he locked his eyes with her ocean blue ones. "You, Ms. Potts are, in fact, quite perfect."

"And you too have your moments, Mr. Stark." She replied back equally as serious, as a small smile started to creep onto his unshaven face at her words.

He suddenly looked down at her chest. "Pepper" he said reaching out to touch her blouse "Your blouse is wet. What happened?"

"Well" she began innocently "my boyfriend gets me so hot and bothered that I sort of self-combust when I'm in his arms."

Tony suddenly looked down at his chest and then back up at her. "I'm so sorry, Pep." He apologized suddenly realizing that it was his own sweaty body that had soaked her blouse as he touched the collar of her blouse with the fingertips of his right hand. "I hope I didn't ruin your blouse. This one **is** one of my favorites, you know."

Pepper quickly sat up in bed and unconsciously began unbuttoning her blouse. "Don't worry, Tony, you didn't ruin it. I just need to go change into something dry now."

She felt his left hand reach out to envelop her right hand, stopping her as she started to unbutton the third button from the top, but not before exposing the top of her lacy, sapphire blue bra. "Please don't tell me that you have panties on that match **that**." He teased, first looking pointedly at her bra and then looking up at her coyly from under his black eyelashes.

She looked down at her exposed bra, then slowly leaned down and kissed him softly on the lips. "OK, I won't then." She chuckled, pulling slightly away from him as she teasingly batted her eyelashes back at him.

He smiled up at her as he slowly pulled her back down towards him and she relaxed in his arms as he draped her over his body and tenderly hugged her. "Thanks for being here for me." He whispered sincerely as he rested his chin on the top of her head.

She tilted her head up and kissed the underside of his bristly jaw. "You are most welcome." She replied as she then placed another kiss a little higher up on his jaw. She could now feel the beginnings of his erection against her stomach. Those thin boxer briefs of his provided absolutely no physical or emotional barrier against the thin wet material of her blouse. And as a result of feeling his arousal, her own libido quickly rose to the occasion. She quickly tamped her lust back down as she shifted her weight intending to roll off of him and back onto the bed. As she began to move, her shoulder suddenly twinged in pain. "Ow!" she exclaimed falling back onto him.

He immediately rolled her over on to the bed, hovering over her. "What's wrong?" he asked his eyes wide with concern.

"Muscle cramp in my shoulder." She replied tightly, pulling her right shoulder up towards her ear as she tried to stretch the joint out in order to relieve the cramp.

He gently pulled her up into a sitting position being careful not to put too much stress on her shoulders as he lifted her. "I can help." He said firmly as he tenderly placed his hands on her shoulders and began to massage them gently. "It feels like you have a tennis ball in here, Pep." He fussed as he increased the movement and pressure of his fingers on her right shoulder even more.

His hands felt so good on her shoulders, especially her right shoulder. It was all she could do just to moan in reply to his words. Tony's hands gently continued their ministrations interpreting her incoherent noises of satisfaction as her authorization for him to continue his massage.

He suddenly stopped his massage and his hands began to unbutton her blouse. "I require bare skin in order to do my best work, Ms. Potts." His voice now a low, deep rumble within his chest. "That is, if you will allow me to." He finished in almost a whisper.

She could feel his hands trembling slightly as he hesitated on the next to last button. "I certainly wouldn't want anything less than your best, Mr. Stark." She replied as she felt her arousal quickly start to build up again, moisture quickly pooling between her thighs. It always amazed her just how quickly and totally she could be turned on by this man.

His fingers nervously unbuttoned the last button on her blouse, and she watched as his eyes grew dark and wide with undisguised lust at the sight of her now uncovered chest. He quickly leaned over to plant a soft kiss on her sternum. She couldn't help herself as her breath hitched in her throat at the feel of his soft lips between her breasts. As he gently pulled her blouse off of her shoulders and arms, she closed her eyes and another low moan involuntarily escaped her lips with the realization that Tony was actually undressing her for the first time ever.

Although she had never even come close to being the whore that Tony had been before he became Iron Man, she had enjoyed a very satisfying sexual life up until the moment that she had met one Tony Stark. That egotistical, brilliant man had, in one fell swoop on that memorable day at the SI R&D budget meeting more than 12 years ago, somehow managed to derail all hope of her ever continuing her search for her 'Mr. Right'. Because when she had locked eyes with Tony for the first time in that conference room so many years ago, her heart knew that she would be forever lost in those bourbon eyes of his, and that no other man would ever come closer to that 'perfect man' profile she had created for herself early in her teenage years. But of course her iron clad ethics had never allowed her to ever enter into a relationship with her then boss. And considering Tony's character flaws pre-Afghanistan, her heart would have never allowed her to enter a relationship with him at that time in their lives either.

Through the years, her hefty salary and her pivotal position as Tony's PA meant that she had never been at a loss for male companionship in her non-Stark Industries hours. But it seemed that none of her temporary bed mates had ever managed to take the place of her annoying, but rather handsome boss in her heart or in her sexual fantasies. As the years went by, she found that the number and intensity of her erotic dreams about her and Tony began to increase as she and Tony grew closer and closer together both professionally and personally. And as her SI job duties continued to grow and Tony became more and more possessive of her, she had found herself with less and less free time to troll for non-SI male companionship. This dwindling supply of available men had unfortunately resulted in her lovers slowly being replaced with romance novels, her favorite vibrator complete with a fresh set of batteries, and a good bottle of wine, although not necessarily in that order. And she had definitely noticed in the past 8 months that she and Tony had been dating, her budget for batteries had been steadily increasing.

Without a doubt she had been in love with him for years, but so in denial that it took 92 days without Tony Stark in her life to wake her up to the fact that her life was somehow incomplete without him. And since the battle in New York, she was finding it harder and harder not to rip Tony's clothes off and have her way with him every time they kissed, inwardly fearing that she would never have another opportunity to ever make love to him. But she was also very determined that it would be Tony that would be the one to make the move into the bedroom for them because he seemed to have the most fear of their relationship somehow falling apart if they took it between the sheets. So she waited and waited; knowing she would keep her promise to him about never, ever giving up on them. Pepper knew without a doubt that becoming intimate would only strengthen their relationship. But she also knew that Tony had to believe that too before they did the deed, and she was willing to wait for however long it would take Tony to make that decision for them. And given the look in his eyes at this moment as he locked eyes with her, Pepper was fairly certain that he had just made that decision for them both.

She watched with hooded eyes as he laid her blouse carefully down on the foot of the bed and he quickly shifted to her side. He then gently pushed her down on the bed. "Lay on your stomach so I can give you a proper massage." He pleaded, his voice low and full of passion, as she slowly rolled over onto her stomach.

Once her body was on the bed, he swung one of his legs over her in order to straddle her. She could now feel his heavy manhood laying against her gluts as his strong hands began her massage. She lightly bit her lip and tried to focus on just his hands and not her now-throbbing womanhood in order to stay as still as possible for the massage. As her shoulder muscles relaxed under his hands, he began to move further down onto her back and focused his fingers on her tight trapezius muscles. He had given her many massages over the years, but this massage was the first one ever done on a bed, and definitely the first one he had given her without her top on….and she found herself more turned on than she would have ever thought possible now.

He suddenly leaned down low over her and dropped a quick kiss to the shell of her left ear as he draped his body over hers. "I don't know whether to thank or to beat the jackass that is making you so tense at work, babe." He whispered in her ear and then lightly kissed her neck just below the ear. "Because if it wasn't for your stiff muscles, I wouldn't be touching you like this." He then kissed her once more on the neck closer to her shoulder before leaning back up to murmur into her ear again "And I **really** like touching you like this."

She quickly turned her head to the left and leaned up managing to catch his mouth with hers. She heard him moan into their kiss as his pelvis rocked into hers. She could now feel the huge bulge in his boxers as he gently pushed himself into the small of her back. His hands slowly began traveling up the sides of her rib cage to her breasts and he gently began caressing the underside of her breasts as they continued to kiss.

"See what you do to me." He moaned as he broke the kiss and rocked his pelvis gently into her again, this time a little more slowly as if wanting to let her feel just how hard he was right now.

In reply, she leaned up and kissed him again as she tucked her left shoulder underneath him and began to turn over onto her back. She never broke the kiss as her arms encircled his neck and pulled his body down to hers. She then opened her mouth and he was quick to respond in kind as her tongue found his and they deepened the kiss.

She pushed her pelvis up into his groin and swiveled her hips into his eliciting what she could only describe as a growl from his lips. "I want you." She whispered as they broke the kiss.

He pulled back slightly from her, stroking her left cheek with the pad of his right thumb his face suddenly looking unsure. "I want you too, Pep. But we…but I…." he hesitated pulling slightly back from her, looking towards the master bath and effectively avoiding eye contact with her.

She placed her left hand on the back of his neck and with her right hand reached up and tried to turn his face back towards hers, but she felt him resist. "Tony" she pleaded softly "Please don't turn away from me and try to shut me out of what's going on inside that head of yours."

He then let her turn his head back to face her and slowly looked down at her, making eye contact with her once again. "It's just…" he started sadly "Don't get me wrong, Pep. I want you more than I have ever wanted anyone, ever." He closed his eyes trying to gather his thoughts for what he wanted to say next. "It's just that…I…I don't want wake up alone tomorrow in bed…in **our** bed because I somehow managed to do something stupid and screw up the best relationship of my life and cause my best friend in the whole world to leave me." He finished quickly closing his eyes tightly at his heart-felt admission.

Pepper waited patiently knowing that he had more to say to her. She gently stroked his goatee, silently willing him to continue.

"Pepper" He began again "to me sharing a bed with you isn't a one-time roll in the hay…..it's actually kinda a 'forever' deal in my mind." His eyes continued to lock with hers and he swallowed hard obviously nervous about what he was saying. "And I've realized that all I want is to wake up every day with you in my arms for like the rest of my life. But I'm not sure at all if that would be in your best interests or if you would even want that. After all, you know what a hot mess I am right now." He finished and quickly looked away, trying once again to hide his emotions from her.

She slowly reached out with her right hand and gently turned his head back around to face her. She could now see the self-torture and sadness in his eyes. And she realized that she had never loved him more than in that moment.

"Anthony Edward Stark" she began, stroking his goatee once again "I have never in my life wanted to be with someone as much as I want to be with you. And I don't mean for just one night either, Tony."

Tony's eyes brightened at her words. "You mean it, Pep?"

She pulled him down and kissed him softly on the lips. "I put my condo up for sale yesterday, Tony." She whispered to him, her breath merely puffs of air against his lips. "So, yes, I do mean it."

A huge smile immediately lit up his face at the meaning of her words. "How about we get started packing you up then?" he said starting to pull away from her.

She knew how task oriented he could be when he was motivated, and she also knew that he was now only about two seconds away from calling Jarvis and asking him where the closest packing supply place was that was open so he could go purchase boxes to pack her belongings into tonight.

"The only thing you will be packing, mister, will be my happily sated body into the master bath shower in the morning after we make love all night." She said only half-teasingly as she pulled him back down to her. "Packing up my belongings can wait until at least **late** tomorrow afternoon."

She watched as his eyes opened so wide that she could no longer see his long, black eyelashes. He opened his mouth to say something, and then quickly closed it again. She smiled to herself knowing that she had once again silenced the great Tony Stark, which in and of itself had always been quite the accomplishment.

She trailed the fingers of her right hand down his cheek tenderly. He quickly turned his head, kissing her fingers as they moved past his mouth. She then moved both her hands to the back of his head as she smiled up at him. He smiled back at her with that soft smile that she loved so much. She pulled him back down into another passionate kiss and she felt him respond to her immediately. She could feel his waning erection once again come back to life above her as she gently pushed her pelvis into his, relishing the resumed friction between their bodies.

Yes, she knew exactly just how much of a 'hot mess' Tony was…..but she also knew without a doubt that he was **her** 'hot mess'. She also knew that Tony wasn't the only one who wanted them to wake up in the same bed every day for the rest of their lives. What Pepper now wanted more than anything else in the world was that this first time with him would be her **last** first time ever. After all they had been through together; she just couldn't even begin to imagine herself with anyone other than Tony for however long either of them had left on this earth.

She was still worried that his still-mending bruised ribs from being caught midair by the Hulk in New York City would cause him to suffer if he took top position during their lovemaking, so she immediately took the lead before all her sentient thoughts lost out to her passion.

"I call dibs on top." She said breaking the passionate kiss between them. "That is, if it's OK with you." She added with a chuckle and a smile.

Laughter suddenly danced in his bourbon eyes. "Why of course, Ms. Potts." He replied kissing one corner of her mouth hard. "How can I possibly deny you anything?"

She replied by gently pinching his left butt cheek.

"Hey!" he said rolling over onto his back and pulling her gently with him. "Don't touch the merchandise unless you intend to buy it." He teasingly warned.

"Why of course, I intend to buy it." she said leaning down and taking his lips once more in a searing kiss.

"Good!" he replied firmly after their kiss. "Because I don't put out for free, you know."

She looked down and smiled broadly at him. "So I've heard." She quickly moved to straddle his waist, rucking up her skirt high around her waist. "So tell me, Mr. Stark" she began running her hands up along his rib cage and then over his bare chest to tweak both of his hardened nipples at once. "How much is this going to cost me?"

"Oh you know; the usual." he replied with a twinkle in his eyes and a small smile starting to form on his face as his hands trailed their way over her hips, along her ribcage, up to the underside of her breasts, his bourbon eyes quickly darkening with passion. "Your eternal love, your faithful companionship…our first born child."

His last four words quickly sank into her now lust-fogged brain and she immediately pulled back from him. "You **want** children?" she asked him breathlessly.

His eyes immediately became worried, fearing that he had already said something that would not only kill the mood, but would anger her too. He slowly withdrew his hands from her breasts and moved them back down to her hips. But he pressed on suddenly feeling the need to express his true feelings to her. "Not just children, Pep. **Our **children. I've sorta been wanting you to be my baby mama since the first day you came to work for me." He paused trying to gauge her reaction, then continued when he saw a small smile tugging at the corner of her mouth. "I mean….. I know that I will never be voted 'Number One Dad' or anything remotely close to it. But you on the other hand are definitely 'World's Greatest Mom' material for sure."

Her smile broke quickly, lighting up her whole face now.

"I **love** you, Pepper." He said leaning up to kiss her softly on the lips. "You are the only woman in the world I could ever see myself having kids with, you know."

"Oh Tony!" She replied immediately leaning down and kissing him back tenderly. "Only you would already be planning out a family when we hadn't even made love yet." She teased. "Were you thinking about artificial insemination, or what? Because I'm not really game for that. I am a big supporter of **natural** methods for procreation, you know."

He gently pushed his pelvis up into hers as his hands moved from her hips to her gluts. "Well then" he growled, his voice now a sexy, low rumble in this chest "Since you are in the control position now, what do you say to us doing a few practice runs for procreation au natural then?"

"I say 'yes'." She replied leaning down to kiss him again.

She felt his hands move to the zipper of her skirt. "Pepper?" he asked, seeking her permission to continue.

"**Yes**, Tony." She replied as he quickly began fumbling with the now bunched up zipper. She reached behind her in order to help him with the zipper but quickly realized that the zipper would never open in its current state. He raised his eyebrows at her. "Don't even think about cutting my skirt off." She warned as he laughed.

"You know me" he began "I don't usually let anything get in the way of progress."

She quickly reached down and tweaked one of his nipples. "Not with **this** skirt you don't."

He laughed again and quickly sat up hugging her close to him. He quickly leaned her backwards, his strong arms laying her down on her back between his now spread out legs. She made no move to resist him repositioning her because she had already figured out that it would be much easier to free her stuck zipper once it was pulled down into its proper position. He gently rolled her back onto her stomach.

"Raise up." He instructed as he repositioned himself at her side.

She immediately raised her waist off of the bed and he gently pulled her skirt back down over her thighs. She felt his hands once again on her skirt's zipper. As she predicted, the zipper slowly gave way to his hands and her skirt was now ready to be removed.

He patted her tenderly on one hip "OK, babe."

She knew what he wanted her to do now, so she leaned back into the bed and slowly raised her hips up. She could feel his hands gently work the fabric of her skirt down over her thighs, knees, calves, and then off her feet. She then felt his hands caressing her ankles, moving slowly back up her legs until he reached the garters for her stockings. She could feel his fingers pull teasingly on the elastic of her garters. She smiled to herself knowing that she would never ever tire of the feel of his strong hands on her body.

"On or off?" he asked, his voice a husky whisper now.

"Off, please." She replied as she felt him suck in a quick breath. To her leaving her stockings on was indicative of a quickie, and this first joining for them was going to be anything but quick. And judging by his moan as he ran his hands up and down her legs, her meaning and intent were not lost on him at all.

She could now feel his mouth on one of her garters, tugging on it gently with his teeth as his fingers quickly removed her stockings. "I'm saving these for later." he growled against the skin of her thigh making her shiver uncontrollably.

She quickly bit the inside of one cheek trying to rein in her arousal. "But aren't those a little small for you?" She teased somewhat proud of just how steady her voice sounded, if only to herself.

He chuckled softly and quickly planted a kiss on the back of each thigh as he slowly pulled off each of her garters. She then felt his fingers under the waist band of her panties as he gently tugged on them. She moaned her permission as he began to slide her panties down her legs ever so slowly, kissing a trail along her legs closely behind the path of her panties, and watching as he tossed her panties over to the side of the bed. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw his black boxer briefs quickly go flying off the bed onto the floor.

"Aren't you forgetting something, Mr. Stark?" she teased knowing that she still had her bra on.

She immediately felt his fingers move to the clasp on her bra, quickly un-fastening it. He gently pulled the silken straps from her arms. He then reached under her abdomen, gently pulling her up so he could pull the bra out from under her. She then saw out of the corner of her eye that her bra quickly followed the path taken by his boxers only a moment ago.

Her breathing began to rapidly speed up, realizing that she now lay naked before an equally naked Tony. But even in the throes of passion, old proprietary habits died hard. She felt an unconscious blush start to spread along her body starting at her face.

"Pep" he moaned loudly straddling her once again as he tenderly moved her hair to one side and lightly kissed the side of her exposed neck just under her left ear.

She suddenly realized that he must have noticed her blush and was now trying to keep her from being embarrassed about their mutual state of undress.

"You are **so** gorgeous when you blush for me, baby." He whispered as he slid his hands up her ribcage and gently caressed her breasts. "So fucking gorgeous…." He moaned again, turning his head to whisper into her left ear. "I love you so much, sweetheart."

With that he began to kiss the inside of her ear. The warmth of his tongue and his hot breath was now sending shivers down her spine, and tingles radiating out into her arms and legs. Her ears were her Achilles' heel and he knew just what to do to her in order to make her rapidly lose control. She could now feel his engorged manhood resting heavily on her buttocks. She forgot all about being embarrassed as her arousal flooded her, spreading its heat in waves throughout her body.

She turned her head so she could look up at his face and she saw that his eyes were now hooded and almost black with emotion now. "I love you, too." She managed to get out before he crashed his lips down onto hers.

She wanted him so badly now. He leaned his body low over hers and she could now feel his manhood huge and hot between her butt cheeks. She could feel and smell the sweat sheen which now covered his body. She suddenly felt herself losing all self control to her lust at the feel of him pressed up against her, and she felt herself push back unconsciously against his heated core. She heard and felt him moan deeply as he reached under her hips and gently pulled her pelvis up into his, as he positioned his thick manhood between her now spread legs.

"I know you wanted to be on top" he groaned between gritted teeth "But will you let me make love to you like this, **please**?!" he asked quickly, his breath short and labored.

Pepper knew that he sounded as desperate as she now felt. She could now feel the cool drops of sweat from his body as they fell silently onto hers. "God, yes! **Now **Tony!" was all she could get her tongue to say as she felt his left hand move to position his tip at her entrance quickly, hesitating only a second before slowly pushing the tip of his manhood into her, giving her time to adjust to his girth as he moved within her sex-soaked walls. She began to focus on relaxing as he moved deeper and deeper within her, willing her muscles to allow him to continue to penetrate her without pain. She was suddenly very grateful for keeping up with her yoga routines which gave her the flexibility and control she so desperately needed at the moment.

She could now feel him bumping gently against her cervix wall and at the same time also feel his heavy balls nestled snugly against her as he came to a stop within her. Since they had begun their romantic relationship after the Stark Expo, she had always been pleasantly surprised at the ways they just seemed to physically fit together. And with the sudden rush of pleasure that she felt as he filled her up so perfectly right now, she knew that sexually they seemed to be made for each other too. He was her soul mate in both spirit **and** body now. This emotional revelation suddenly made her teary eyed.

As he leaned over her again to brush his lips along her cheek, he noticed a small tear slowly rolling down her face. "Oh god, Pepper!" he said in a worried tone and she could feel the sudden tension in his body as it lay gently against hers. "I didn't mean to hurt you!"

She could feel him now attempting to pull out of her and she clamped down around him with all of her might. "No, Tony, **no**!" she begged finding her voice quickly as he immediately stopped moving again. "You are **not** hurting me." She explained turning her head towards him and reaching up to grip his right hand tightly as it lay on her right shoulder. "It's just… we fit together so perfectly… that it seems that we really are made for each other…. and I got a little weepy about it, that's all."

He leaned over immediately to kiss her softly on the lips as he squeezed her right hand tenderly. When they broke the kiss, Pepper noticed that his eyes too had misted over confirming in her mind just how important this moment was between them. "We **are** made for each other." He said, his voice breaking a little as his lips took hers again in a strongly passionate kiss, thrusting slowly back into her again as she moaned her approval against his lips.

She was already getting so close, that when he thrust back into her a third time she was unable to hold back her orgasm any longer. She had been waiting for this moment for so long; years in fact, that the actual event almost seemed surreal. She began to shake as she closed her eyes tightly and began to ride out the waves of pleasure that quickly engulfed her. She could feel him draping his body over hers and she struggled to remain conscious as the stars danced behind her closed eye lids. She could hear him murmuring words of love to her as she continued to fight to stay focused, wanting to somehow burn this moment into her consciousness and keep it within her forever.

He slowly lowered her from her knees to rest flat on the bed, and he began to pump his hips slowly into hers again. The change in angle between them became apparent when he thrust back into her. He was now hitting her clit in a manner that had her libido immediately turning back on. She had only been multi-orgasmic a few times in her life, but she quickly realized that Tony had her now well on her way to yet another orgasm. She knew that it had been a long time for her, but she also knew that no other lover had ever made her feel as good as she felt right now.

As coherent thought slowly returned to her, she was suddenly cognizant of what Tony was saying to her. Unfortunately for her she had been within earshot of him in the throes of ecstasy on more than one occasion in the past, and knew that his past bed manners had always been both loud and obnoxious, ever gloating over the orgasms of his conquests. But with her he was quietly passionate, punctuating his feelings with moans instead of shouts, and soft murmurs of encouragement and love instead of loud boasts.

"Pepper" she could hear him saying softly into her ear in a voice low and full of love and passion "you are so beautiful…. love you so much." He went on to whisper softly "Only you, Pepper….it's always been you…..now I finally know what its like to really make love…..god Pepper….never felt like this before. Then he quietly chanted "This is not a dream….this is **not** a dream!"

He continued to move slowly in and out of her as his hands continued his gentle ministrations over her body. His hands had always been her undoing, and it had always amazed her just how his calloused and rough fingers could be so loving and tender with her. She could now feel his strong hands gently kneading her butt cheeks, as he leaned back onto the backs of her thighs as he pulled gently back from her without ever leaving the warmth of her body. Then he leaned forward thrusting slowly into her as he slowly moved his hands to her hips, then along her ribcage to gently caress her breasts as he placed small open-mouthed kisses along her spine. He moved her hair back and forth between her shoulders, gently kissing the side and back of her neck as his fingers trailed slowly through her hair. He then leaned over to kiss the sides of each of her breasts as he gently caressed each one in turn. And as his hands and mouth continued their tender assault on her body, his hips kept up the steady rhythm that continued to send goose bumps out from her core to the rest of her body. She was quite positive that she had never in her life been loved like he was loving her right now.

Soon Tony began to speed up his thrusts, his breaths becoming shorter and more labored. She could now feel the sweat dripping off his body on to hers in an almost continuous rain of passion. She could smell the arousal on his body as he leaned his head into the crook of her neck, planting small, sloppy kisses along her neck and left shoulder. She suddenly heard his teeth actually clench in his jaw as his thrusts started to become less smooth and seamless. He now began to pant heavily as his thrusts continued to become more and more choppy. She knew he must be getting close now. But then too, so was she…..again.

"Pepper!" he panted into her left ear "Can't hold on… much longer."

"Tony!" she said arching her back slightly into him as she forced herself to be vocal. "Just let go baby!" She said leaning her head over to his and bumping into his head gently "I love you so much….cum for me, sweetheart!""

She could feel his hips begin to jerk now as his hands went to her hips and he pulled her back up into him. Her vaginal walls were suddenly flooded with his hot seed as he moaned loudly wrapping his arms around her hips as he continued pumping into her with each rock of his hips. With the feel of his warmth within her, she suddenly exploded into orgasmic bliss as she came a second time in a mind shattering release, feeling her vaginal walls milk every drop out of him as he continued to thrust deep within her.

Her double orgasmed brain finally registered the fact that he was actually ejaculating into her, and suddenly her mind was racing. Surprisingly she did not panic….but she was definitely confused. In the 12 plus years that she had known him, Tony had never once to her knowledge (which was considerable as well as quite complete) failed to use a condom. Obie had always been insistent, sometimes brutally so, with Tony that there would be absolutely no legal heirs to the Stark throne. She knew that Tony was quite capable of putting a condom on correctly no matter how drunk or stoned he was, and he was neither tonight.

Given Tony's promiscuous past, every room in the mansion had designated locations for condom storage. And even though he would take his 'catch of the day' into guest bedrooms and not into his bedroom, she knew for a fact that his bedroom's bedside table still had unexpired condoms in the drawer because she had put them in there herself after he returned from Afghanistan. She remembered silently wishing at the time that Tony would use those condoms, never bringing another woman into his bed ever again. And given that he had not been with a woman since he had returned home, it seemed that she had in fact gotten her wish.

Upon the advice of her doctor, she had stopped taking birth control over six years ago. She had suffered with endometriosis since she was 16 but it wasn't severe enough to warrant surgery, so she had been on medication for the condition off and on since she started working at SI. Tony knew her medical history and the fact that she was no longer on birth control. So apparently his intentions to start a family with her were both genuine and immediate considering that here they were in their very first time of making love bare-backing it. She quickly started calculating her cycle and reasoned that even though she was not exactly at mid-cycle, she was close enough to her ovulation date that potentially she could become pregnant. She knew the statistics: the average over-30 couple's successful conception time was six months or longer given her endometriosis. But then again, she and Tony were no average couple.

Until she came to work for SI, she had always dreamed of having a large family. But for the past 12 years her wish for having children of her own had fallen way down on her personal priority list. Even her family had quit asking her when she was going to get married and have kids. Hearing Tony talk about the two of them having children together tonight had reminded her just how important having her own children had been to her years ago.

As he tenderly nuzzled the side of her neck at the shoulder, still unable to speak words, his moans of pleasure still continued to raise goose bumps up all along her body. His arms continued to gently pull her hips up into his as his rocking gradually started to slow down.

As his hips stopped moving, she felt his right arm move up and under her right shoulder as he slowly turned them over on their sides, still joined at the hips. She sighed deeply at the feel of him spooned up behind her, his warmth soaking through the cool sweat now gathered on her skin. She tenderly stroked his left arm that was still wrapped around her stomach just under her breasts. He suddenly reached out with his left arm, pulling the comforter up over and around her, re-wrapping his left arm around her waist on top of the comforter in order to keep it securely fastened around her. She reached back under the comforter with her left hand to stroke his left hip, eliciting a low moan of pleasure from him.

"You know, I think I could really get into this making love thing with you, babe." He teased his deep voice rumbling into her chest from his.

Her hand on his hip stopped immediately and she couldn't help but giggle at his casual choice of words as he pulled her even closer to him. "Making love thing?" she teased back; as a yawn overtook her by surprise "You are just so full of yourself."

"Yes, I am." He agreed enthusiastically, placing a quick kiss to the back of her head "and in case you hadn't noticed, you are now full of me too….and in more ways than one." He finished proudly with the gentle nudge of his hips and an empathic yawn of his own. He quickly burrowed his face into the back her neck.

"Actually, I **had** noticed that." she replied with a small laugh.

"Would you be upset if we took a little nap before you have your way with me again?" He asked, pulling her into his embrace just a little tighter. "Even though you are the love of my life, and I would like nothing more than to have you ravage me again right now, your yawn is very contagious, Pep."

"Well…" She replied shifting back against him slightly as she closed her eyes. "a nap does sound pretty good right about now." The past week had been an exhausting one for them both. She tried her best to stifle another yawn before continuing. "And I love you too, Tony."

She could feel his breathing start to slow down as his breaths continued to move her hair at the back of her head to and fro. He was softly snoring into her neck in less than a minute. As she snuggled her back against him once more, preparing to join him in slumber, she thought back to their first time making love. It hadn't happened the way she had envisioned their first coupling being at all. Neither one of them had been drunk/high, bleeding, or for whatever reason in fear for their lives. There had been no pomp and no ceremony, no trumpets blaring out from the heavens, no choirs singing 'halleluiahs'. It had just been them being themselves, using their own brand of humor and snark to help in their transition from best friends to lovers. As sleep finally caught up to her, she realized just how happy finally being with Tony had made her feel. And she knew instinctively that her days of sleeping alone had just come to an end.

Pepper woke with a start, aware of an electronic hum in her left ear as her head slowly moved up and down. She cautiously opened her eyes and saw the clock on the night table display indicating '1:23 PM'. Her eyes then focused in closer and she realized that she was currently draped across Tony's body, her left ear on his chest next to the arc reactor, and her right arm slung low across his bare hips, pinning his flaccid cock down against his pelvis. Her left hand was woven into the dark curls at the base of his neck. She could feel his right arm wrapped snugly around her right hip and his left hand was resting on top of her head, his fingers carded through her now tangled strawberry blonde hair. She remembered him stroking her hair just before she fell asleep the last time.

She tilted her head and softly kissed the skin adjacent to the reactor, and she felt him start to move ever so slightly under her touch in reaction to her kiss. She really didn't want to wake him just yet, but as she breathed in their lusty combined scent, felt his warm skin beneath her fingers, and saw the muscles in his chest ripple with his slight movements, she could feel her passion start to build quickly again. They had paced themselves during the night and early morning taking short naps between each round of their lovemaking. After all they had over 12 years of repressed hornyness to catch up on. Around 6:00 AM, they mutually agreed to call it a night (actually morning) in the pre-dawn darkness when they finally admitted to each other that they were both getting too tired to continue without something more than just a power nap.

She now felt his manhood stirring beneath her arm. They were both badly in need of a shower at the moment, as they had been too tired to get out of bed at 6:00 AM this morning to take one. As she slowly wiggled her body, she now realized that her arm was definitely sticking to Tony's manhood. The movement of her arm away from his manhood triggered an immediate response from him as his unconscious arousal quickly gained speed and momentum, and his erection grew. Even though her neat-freak personality wanted her to immediately get up and take a shower, the passionate side of her just accepted the fact that her arm was now bound to his rapidly hardening cock with their own unique combination of dried bodily fluids. She figured that he was probably sore like she was from the overuse of long-since-used various parts of their bodies, so she continued to force herself to refrain from pulling her arm away from the no-doubt tender skin of his manhood. She decided that she would just wait until he was awake before attempting any other separation moves.

She suddenly felt her body move quickly upward as he suddenly breathed in a huge breath of air, slowly releasing it in a prolonged, contented sigh. "G'morning, gorgeous." He whispered planting a soft kiss in her hair as he tenderly stroked a few wayward strands away from her face before entwining his fingers within her hair again.

She quickly kissed him on the chest again and then tilted her head up towards him as she felt him release his left hand's hold on her messy curls. "And a good morning to you, handsome." She replied as he stretched his neck down to kiss her softly on the lips.

"I would ask you to pinch me just to make sure I'm not dreaming" he started with an obvious twinkle in his eyes "but I don't think my body could take it."

Pepper chuckled loudly as he softly smiled down at her "Sore, are we?" she teased as she smiled back up at him.

"You wore me **out**, woman." He replied reaching down with his left hand to tenderly brush her hair out of her face again as she moved her right hand slightly upward away from his body tugging on his manhood slightly. "Ouch! Hey that hurts!" He whined "**Please** be careful…I'm going to need that later."

"Later?" she teased him as he reached around her with his right hand helping her free her arm from his now semi-erect penis. "How much later?"

Without warning and with a speed that negated in her mind his claim about being sore this morning, he quickly rolled up onto his knees at the same time rolling her over and then scooped her up in a bridal carry as he quickly walked on his knees backwards across their Californian king bed with her now held securely in his arms. She began to squirm in his arms and he quickly kissed her full on the lips, immediately stilling her. Once he reached the edge of the bed he planted his feet on the floor and stood up with her in his arms as she looked up at him a small smile now on her face.

"Well now that all depends, Ms. Potts." He teased back "I seem to recall a comment you made last night about 'packing' a certain someone into the shower this morning." He said with a chuckle as he turned and carried her quickly towards the master bathroom. "And I also remember something about that same certain someone having a happily sated body too. So if I'm not mistaken, and I'm usually not, then that must mean that we need to get busy in the shower immediately, right?"

"Maybe." She answered with another giggle as he gently dropped her feet to the floor of the huge shower at the same time pulling her close in to his body as they stood together under the double shower heads. "But that all depends on how you define the word 'busy'.

A warm cascade of water began to flow on and around them as the ever-vigilant Jarvis once again made his presence known to them. Pepper had long since gotten over being surprised or even embarrassed about Jarvis' omni-presence in their personal spaces within the mansion.

"I'll show you." He answered immediately his voice now raw with sudden lust. He quickly leaned into her, taking her lips in a passionate kiss that had Pepper's mind reeling within seconds. His hands quickly began roaming gently over her body, setting up a rhythm of love that she had learned to appreciate during the night and early morning. As he stroked his fingers slowly up her thighs, his right hand gently parted her swollen folds, being careful not to over stimulate her as she felt herself grow even wetter at her core.

As they continued to kiss, she suddenly felt the urge rise up in her to take him in her mouth again. She remembered back to when she had gone down on him the first time, feeling him writhing in pleasure as she slowly took him into ecstasy, licking and sucking him until he came apart for her. Somehow she was not surprised at all when he tasted like Skittles and Red Bull, his current drugs of choice. And during their second round of lovemaking, she had found him to be very talented at cullingus making her cum with his mouth twice before entering her and carrying her to a rare third orgasm as he climaxed. She felt her core now dripping with need at the sudden rush of memories of him going down on her.

She immediately dropped to her knees and gently pushed him back onto the large marble seat built into one of the shower walls. She heard him moan loud and low as she gently spread his thighs with her elbows and tucked her head between his legs. She heard his head hit the shower wall with a dull thud and quickly looked up at him.

"Are you OK?" she teased after realizing he was indeed OK, quickly leaning back down to swirl her tongue around his un-cut tip as he groaned loudly in response. "And I suppose that I can take that as a 'yes'." She chuckled, the vibrations from her lips causing him to immediately squirm under her.

"God, Pepper!" He barely managed to get out, his breath now hitching in his throat. "I'm… more…. than…. OK. Just….don't…..ever….stop!"

She smiled to herself as she began to stroke him with her right hand, her left one now gently kneading his balls as he moaned loudly again, twitching his hips slightly. She had always loved oral sex and had learned to deep throat in college with one of her more sexually experienced boyfriends. Tony's girth only allowed only part of him inside of her mouth, but she could tell by his facial expressions and body language that her efforts to take him deep were most appreciated. She also knew from their previous lovemaking that while he did enjoy her mouth on him, he preferred his release to be in her core instead of her mouth. He had teased her at the time about not wanting to waste the 'Stark baby batter'. But she remembered getting the distinct feeling from him then that he was quite serious about getting her pregnant. Her plan right now was to pleasure him just short of his orgasm, making sure that their hips were fully engaged when his release came.

And judging by his body language and loud moans, he was already getting close. As she licked along the underside of his sheathed head, she could already taste the salty essence that was his pre-cum. She raised her head and looked up at him and saw that his head was thrown back once again against the shower wall, eyes screwed tightly shut, and mouth open slightly. He looked almost drunk with raw lust, the muscles in his chest, arms and legs tensed and standing out against the white marble of the shower as the water cascaded down upon him. And of course, he had never looked sexier. She felt her own body shiver in heated lust at the sight of him.

He opened his eyes as she slowly stood up trailing her hands up his thighs, abs, and chest, her hands winding up on the back of his neck, bound up within his dark, wet, curls.

"Can't waste that 'Stark baby batter', remember?" she whispered in his left ear as he growled loudly reaching out to tenderly envelop each of her breasts with his hands.

"Damn straight!" He replied and stood up in front of her quickly wrapping his arms around her hips and pulling her into him, as he adjusted his hips so that his rock hard manhood successfully sought out her hot folds.

She suddenly felt one of his arms blindly seeking out the oversized loofah on the marble shelf behind him as he gently pushed into her center and began to maneuver them towards one of the flat walls of the shower. As her back gently hit the wall, he placed the loofah behind her head as a make-shift pillow as he began to slowly thrust the rest of the way into her. As her eyes began to lose focus from the feeling of him now buried deep inside of her, she noticed that his eyes were now completely dilated with passion and completely black in color. The look of raw passion etched upon his face as their eyes locked made her shiver with anticipation. He quickly leaned his head to hers and kissed her hard, his tongue silently begging permission to enter her mouth. As she opened her mouth to him, she met his tongue halfway as she felt his hips pull back slightly and immediately thrust back into her as if he were afraid she was going to slip away from him somehow as the water continued to fall on and around them.

The angle between them as they stood joined together was amazing and he hit her g spot now with every thrust of his hips. She felt him reach around with his hands to grip her legs under each hamstring, gently pulling her legs up around her waist. Then he began thrust a little harder and with only the fifth thrust she literally exploded around him as her orgasm swiftly overtook her, surprising both her and him.

"Got to hold on, Pepper!" He pleaded leaning his forehead onto her shoulder as his hips ground to a halt deep within her core. "Want to make this one last…." He moaned loudly. "Feel soooo good, babe…..love you so much!"

His voice faded away from her as she felt her eyes roll back in her head. Her body seemed to freefall forever, shaking uncontrollably as her orgasm rippled outward from her center. She could feel his strong arms under her easily holding her up and she pushed her head more into the loofah, as she continued riding out the waves of pleasure now washing over her. She knew that he was hoping to wait her out and give her another orgasm before he gave in to his own body's wants and needs. In their short time together in intimacy, she had realized that her desire to pull him over with her in her orgasms was quite strong. After all she had spent over 12 years catering to his wishes. And she instinctively knew what he needed at the moment.

"Come on sweetheart!" she pleaded as the last of her body's tremors began to subside. She began running her fingernails lightly up and down his back feeling goose bumps rise up on his back with each of her strokes. Her vaginal walls clamped down hard on him and she felt him shiver. Although he was definitely the more vocal of the two of them during their lovemaking, she wanted to change that a little. "**Pleeeease** Tony!" She begged. He raised his head up quickly to look her with a questioning look in his eyes knowing that her words were somewhat out of character for her. She gave him a small smile and quickly leaned over, biting down softly on his right ear lobe as she breathed softly into his ear. "Give it to me hard and fast, **stud**!"

His reaction was immediate. He hands moved to her gluts and she wrapped her legs more securely around his waist as he began to thrust more deeply into her. She could feel him bump her cervix on each stroke now as he filled her up completely, then back out slightly as he lifted her halfway off of him, only to thrust deep within her once more as he pulled her back down on to him.

She knew that he had always been unusually strong for his size, and being Iron Man had given him even more bulk muscle. But she also knew that for her height and physical condition, she was definitely not a lightweight. Yet he continued to lift her up and down as if she weighed little to nothing. His display of raw strength with her suddenly turned her on even more than she ever thought possible. She began to use her legs to help pull herself down even harder onto him hoping to bury him deeper within her on each stroke and she felt him immediately growl his approval.

All of their previous lovemaking had been passionate but with undercurrent of tenderness. But this time their passion held within it the feeling of barely suppressed wanton desire. Even though you couldn't categorize it as rough sex, it definitely had a feel of desperation to it. And considering their past history, a feeling of desperation between them was not at all surprising. As he continued pumping his hips into hers, she knew that this particular version of shower sex was definitely on her list of future things to do with Tony.

She felt him actually grow harder within her as he started to speed up lifting her up and down his engorged shaft. She quickly realized that she was already getting close again. She leaned her head back down so that her mouth was next to his right ear again.

"I'm so close, Tony." She breathed into his ear feeling him shiver in response to her warm breath "And I want you to cum with me this time, baby."

She could now feel him stutter in his thrusts and she knew that it wouldn't be much longer for him either. She wrapped her arms tightly around his neck pulling him closer into her and changing the angle between their bodies slightly.

"Pepper!" he shouted as he drove deep into her, pinning her up against the wall. She could feel him began pumping into her as he quickly pulled out and plunged once again deep within her, his heat continuing to flow into her depths.

And with his next deep thrust, her own orgasm suddenly exploded in a white hot light behind her closed eyelids. She quickly tucked her head between his neck and shoulder as she shuddered violently in his arms. She felt him pull her body into him tightly as he drew back a fourth time quickly thrusting into her again as he continued to pump into her. She lost her fight with consciousness at that point, becoming aware again as she felt herself slowly being lowered to the floor of the shower by his shaking arms. He then leaned his head onto her shoulder after she regained her footing and she could now feel his heavy breathing in her right ear as he wrapped his arms around her and held on to her like his life depended on it.

They stood together wrapped in each other's arms for a few minutes as the shower water continued to flow down on them. They both slowly began to get their breathing back under control.

"Wow!" Tony breathed into her ear, following his exclamation with a quick kiss to the shell of her ear. "That was amazing, Pepper!" He then leaned his head down to kiss her shoulder tenderly. "But I think I'm going to be limited to only one of those a day."

She finally found her voice as he continued to plant kisses up her shoulder to her neck. "Me too." She replied with a soft chuckle. "Maybe it's time we really took a shower and cleaned up."

"Yup." He agreed leaning back from her as he reached up to brush her wet hair away from her face. "I **am** getting a little hungry for something other than your lovin', sweetheart."

"So you're telling me that you can't live on just my love, Mr. Stark?" She teased pulling him back in for a quick peck on the lips.

"Actually my spirit can, Ms. Potts. It's just my body that is in need of some breakfast." He grinned broadly at her as he reached around her pulling out the bottle of body wash and grabbing another loofah from the rack. "Turn around babe and let me wash your beautiful back." He said as she slowly turned around in his arms.

He quickly soaped up the loofah and began to gently scrub her back. Since she was the one who picked out all of his toiletries, she absolutely loved the smell of his body wash. He continued to gently scrub both her backside and front, being very careful with her now sensitive body parts. She closed her eyes and just enjoyed the sensations that surrounded her as she stood there motionless under his hands.

"You are so gorgeous." He whispered to her as he continued to gently wash her "I am such a lucky man that you chose me to love…..I am so very lucky."

After the previous night together, she suddenly realized that she was no longer embarrassed about him openly admiring her naked body. She was almost limp now in his hands as he continued to tenderly wash her, and she could only manage a moan in response back to him and his whispered words.

He chuckled to himself "Feels good, doesn't it?" he commented as he kissed her full on the lips when he finished.

She slowly opened her eyes and smiled at him. "Yes, it does." She replied her voice low and lazy as she gently took the loofah from his hands. "Now it's your turn, Mr. Studly." She teased.

She laughed as his eyebrows shot up on his face. "Mr. Studly, huh?" he repeated closing his eyes in contentment as she began to wash his chest gently. "I do like the sound of that."

"Of course you do." She replied adding more body wash to the loofah. "You know I could just hear your ego crying out to be stroked."

He smiled at her, his eyes still closed as she continued to scrub him clean taking care to be gentle with him along his left ribcage, his back, and of course his manhood. She smiled to herself suddenly when she realized just how content performing this labor of love for him made her feel. When she finished with his body she hung the loofah up and poured shampoo into her hands reaching up to quickly lather up his dark head of messy hair. Now it was his time to moan a response to her as she gently scratched his scalp with her fingernails.

She promptly moved him into the shower spray and rinsed his hair taking her time to rub his scalp with her fingertips making sure to remove all of the shampoo. He moaned again even louder this time as she steered him out of the shower spray to the side of the shower in order to squeeze a generous amount of conditioner into both his hair and his goatee. He opened his eyes and looked at her, a silent question in his eyes.

"Beard burn." She answered and he closed his eyes again as she continued to work the conditioner in. She then began to massage his muscular shoulders as she counted off the seconds in her head in order to give the conditioner the proper time to work its magic on his dark locks and beard. He groaned under her hands and she smiled to herself in satisfaction.

After counting to 120, she turned him back into the shower spray, eliciting another deep moan from him as she rinsed both his hair and face.

As her hands fell away from him, his eyes slowly opened and he looked at her with such love and devotion that she felt her knees almost buckle under her.

"I love you." He said simply, his voice a low rumble over the sound of the water. She smiled back at him as he grabbed his bottle of shampoo off the shelf. "We do need to get your body wash and shampoo in here, babe." He said a huge grin spreading across his face as he began to work the shampoo into her hair and scalp. "We can't have you going around smelling like me, can we? You know how people like to talk."

She chuckled at him, knowing that neither one of them gave a flying flip about what anyone, including the media said or didn't say about them anymore. They were way past that in their relationship. She then closed her eyes and focused her attention on the feel of his strong fingers on her scalp. She noticed that his right arm suddenly wound itself around her middle. She then realized that she was starting to slowly sink down her body suddenly becoming boneless as he continued to wash her hair.

"Hey, no falling down in the shower, sweetheart." He said only half seriously "Baby, I knew my hands were good, but I just didn't know that I could bring you to your knees just by shampooing your hair." He teased. "You do realize that this is very valuable information for me to have for my use in future interpersonal negotiations with you, right?"

He slowly moved her into the shower spray to rinse the shampoo out of her hair before she had a chance to respond. At the feel of his fingertips on her scalp again she couldn't help but moan out her reply. "Yeeeessss." She finally managed to get out as he laughed out loud at her.

He then moved her back out of the shower spray again and poured some of his conditioner into his hand and then began to massage the conditioner into her hair. She closed her eyes again at the sensation and chose to ignore another chuckle directed at her.

As he waited for the conditioner to work on her long hair, he began to massage her trapezius muscles starting at her neck and working his way down her back. She groaned at the sensation of the sweet pressure on her sore muscles.

"I'm not hurting you am I?" he said stilling his hands suddenly.

"God, no Tony!" She finally managed to get out as he began to massage her again.

"That's it, woman." He said with upmost authority in his voice "From now on I get to give you at least one massage a day." He continued "That is my duty seeing how I am now your love slave."

She started laughing in earnest at his words. "My love slave, huh?" she finally managed to get out. "You had better hope that you don't regret those words, Mr. Stark."

"I will **never** regret being your love slave, Ms. Potts." He said suddenly turning serious. "I regret a great deal in my life, but definitely not that."

She tried to turn around and he gently caught her and moved her back into the shower spray. "Time to rinse off, babe." He said as he began to run his fingers through her hair again down to her scalp. He then massaged her scalp once again until he was satisfied that she was thoroughly rinsed. "Hey, J." he called out "Turn off the water, will ya?"

"At once, Mr. Stark." Jarvis replied. "Sir, I must now inform you that Col. Rhodes continues to wait downstairs. I have made repeated attempts to reschedule your meeting with him, but he steadfastly refuses to reschedule or to leave."

"Dammit!" Tony exclaimed "I forgot about Rhody coming over this afternoon." He took her hand in his and quickly led them out of the shower. He pulled three towels out of the linen cabinet, leaving two on the countertop next to the sink and quickly wrapped one around her, gently tucking the ends of the towel between her breasts. He then carefully draped one of the other towels over her head so she could begin to dry her hair.

She couldn't help but watch him as he quickly began to dry himself off, first his hair and then the rest of his body, her eyes immediately drawn to his manhood. She looked away quickly when his eyes turned to her, not wanted to be caught ogling him when she should be sharing his concern over Rhody being in the house with them.

"Jarvis" he began as she started to towel her hair dry "Does Col. Rhodes know about us…. uh…. meaning Pepper and me… you know…. being together?"

"It would be a violation of my protocols to report to anyone, including Col. Rhodes that you and Ms. Potts' are now engaging in sexual relations, sir. You and Ms. Potts' security and privacy have been given a high priority in my core programming." Jarvis replied "I did however sir, discretely inform Col. Rhodes that you and Ms. Potts were currently indisposed." Jarvis continued "But Col. Rhodes has no doubt become suspicious in the 93.5 minutes that he has been waiting for you to become **available**, sir."

Pepper looked at Tony and when their eyes met, she could see the uncertainty in his eyes. "Do you want me to come downstairs with you?" she quickly asked.

Tony sighed heavily. "No." he replied "Let me try to handle this on my own." He then walked out of the master bath quickly.

Pepper finished towel drying her hair and followed him out into the master bedroom with the towel now wrapped around her head. Tony had just finished pulling a t-shirt and a pair of black work pants. He sat down on the bed to pull on his socks and shoes.

"I'm going back to my room to change." She said picking up her clothes from last night and walking over to the laundry chute with them.

Tony got up from the bed and quickly walked over to her after finding and picking up his discarded briefs from the night before. He opened the laundry chute for her, holding it open while she put her clothes in. He stuffed his briefs behind her clothes into the chute and closed the door.

"See you in a few." He said pressing a quick kiss to her forehead before he turned and jogged out of the bedroom.

Pepper had known Rhody for many years and she had come to both trust him and value his friendship. He had always treated her as an equal and an ally. Rhody had in many ways become a big brother to her over the years. And of course he had also acted as a big brother to Tony since they were in MIT together when they were both in their teens. She also knew that Rhody was above all else a very conservative military man now with a very rigid set of standards in both his professional and his interpersonal life. It was going to be interesting to hear how he reacted to Tony being late for their 'meeting' and his suspicions concerning the reason behind his lateness.

Rhody knew that she and Tony had begun to date and he was very supportive of their changed relationship commenting numerous times that them being together had been a long time coming. Rhody was also very protective of Pepper and had on more than one occasion in the 12 plus years they had known each other, nearly come to blows with Tony over Tony keeping and maintaining a professional and proprietary relationship with her. Even after she and Tony became good friends, Pepper knew that Rhody continually worried about her emotional well-being when it came to Tony. It was almost like Rhody didn't trust Tony when it involved her, acting just like any other big brother when any man took more than platonic interest in his baby sister.

As she finished dressing, she began to brush her hair out. She had just finished putting her hair into a loose, damp ponytail when she heard Rhody's voice from downstairs.

"Pep-per!" Rhody called out to her in a voice which Pepper knew meant trouble for someone, and not necessarily her.

She smiled to herself and she opened up her bedroom door. "Coming, Jimmy." She replied as she quickly walked towards the stairs. She found them sitting together at the kitchen table. Rhody was drinking his usual strong blend of coffee which she had often commented did not even need a cup.

As was his habit, Rhody stood as she entered the room. Not to be outdone, Tony also stood and then pulled out her chair for her at the table as she approached them.

She locked eyes with Tony as she softly smiled her thanks to him. He smiled back at her as she sat down and he scooted her chair in for her.

Rhody sat directly in front of both of them his expression somber and serious as he looked at each of them in turn. He continued to look them over for a few seconds noting their freshly showered condition complete with wet hair.

"Let me preface this conversation with the two of you with the fact that I love you both like family, and I will always have your best interests at heart no matter how you might feel about my opinions." He began as he reached out to take Pepper's hand in his locking eyes with her.

"Hey!" Tony protested as Pepper giggled at his jealous outburst.

"Give it a rest, Stark." Rhody replied immediately in a soft tone, never breaking eye contact with her. "That macho shit doesn't work on me, remember?"

"Yes, **mom**." Tony replied sarcastically as Rhody reached out and gently kicked him under the table. "Ouch! That **hurt** Platypus!" as he feigned genuine injury.

"Quit your whining and pay attention." Rhody replied firmly finally looking over at Tony.

Pepper noticed a smile in Rhody's eyes at he locked eyes with Tony.

"After all, I'm the one that has been here waiting on you for almost **two** hours now. So if anyone should be whining, it should be me." Rhody continued "Jarvis told me that the two of you were indisposed, and given both of you seem to have just stepped out of the shower, I now feel fortunate that I didn't just disregard Jarvis, and come upstairs looking for the two of you. I would have no doubt been emotionally scarred for the rest of my life if I walked in on the two of you being 'indisposed' together."

"A very wise course of action, Col. Rhodes." Jarvis commented.

She noticed that Tony had now opened his mouth with the intent to say something snarky back to Rhody and she was quick to kick him not so gently under the table.

"Ouch! That **really** did hurt Pepper!" he exclaimed as Rhody laughed loudly and shook his head at them both.

"Yep." Rhody said loudly "You two really are made for each other." Tony just glared at him as he began to speak again "Now let me just say what I need to say so we can get things back to normal here."

Pepper knew that Rhody was about to launch into full lecture mode, and she saw Tony grimace as Rhody smirked at him, just daring him to say something. But surprisingly Tony remained silent. Rhody suddenly turned to look at Pepper, his eyes becoming soft and concerned.

"While you were upstairs, Tony told me that you had agreed last night to move into the mansion with him." He paused for a few seconds as if to let that statement sink into his own head. "I know that you two are grown and can do whatever the hell you want, but what **I** want is to make sure that this really is in **both** of your best interests. My preference being, of course, that you two marry before you play house."

Pepper looked at Rhody, tenderness showing in her eyes at his well intended words and she noticed that Rhody's brow furrowed slightly as if in worry at her in return.

"He also told me that he intends to be faithful to you and that 'Tony Stark the Playboy' is no more. And I already know just how faithful you have been to him." He then hesitated a few seconds as if he was in deep thought about their current situation before he spoke again. "And although I would rather be accepting your offer to be best man at your wedding at the moment, here I am somehow giving you my big brother blessing on this co-habitation plan for the two of you."

Pepper felt herself smiling at his words as Rhody looked first at her then at Tony. She looked over and noticed that Tony was stock still, staring at Rhody intently, but remaining silent.

"But my approval of the two of you living is sin comes with a condition." Rhody continued, undaunted by Tony's somewhat menacing look at his last words. "If you two decide to go all Brangelina on me and get pregnant, both me **and **my shotgun are going to come calling. There will be absolutely **no** children out of wedlock….understand?" He then turned to look at Tony pointedly "And one last thing, Stark. You definitely need to consider this conversation fair warning of the beating that I will give you if I find out that you **ever** treat her badly."

Pepper knew without a doubt that Tony would never, ever treat her badly. But given that the two of them had agreed during the night to try to conceive a child, Pepper was almost surprised that Tony was agreeing without a fight to Rhody's condition regarding having children out of wedlock. In the years she had known Tony, he would get nervous even at the mention of the word 'marriage'. So it seemed unlikely that he would even consider getting married himself. Then it suddenly dawned on her that Tony had not only been fearful of having sex with her because she thought that she would leave him the next morning, but also of proposing marriage to her because he believed that she would turn him down. She quickly turned to look at him to gauge his reaction to Rhody's words, noting his tense posture as he continued to stare at Rhody. She realized that by agreeing to Rhody's conditions, Tony would never have to worry about her **not **agreeing to marry him. For all of his brashness and bravado, his insecurities had always tugged on her heartstrings. Career as CEO of SI aside, yes she would agree to change her last name to Stark when the time came, pregnant or not.

"Agreed." Tony suddenly replied with finality looking Rhody square in the eye as he reached out his right hand across the table in order to shake Rhody's hand.

Rhody immediately reached out and took his outstretched hand and shook it firmly, a huge smile breaking out on both their faces when their hands made contact over the table. Rhody then quickly stood up and walked around the table reaching out to pull Pepper up out of her chair. He looked at her with questioning eyes as he held her at arms length.

"I agree also." She said quietly and she swore that she heard Tony let out a breath in relief at her answer. Rhody quickly took her into his arms and gave her a tender hug.

"I amhappy for you both." Rhody said to both of them as Pepper hugged him back. "And the cool part of all this is that we can now double date. Marci and I have decided to start dating again."

"Double date?" Tony questioned as Pepper and Rhody separated and Tony quickly moved to her side, wrapping his arm possessively around her waist.

"Tony still hasn't quite gotten the hang of dating yet." Pepper explained with a laugh.

"We are **so** going to have fun with this." Rhody replied laughing with her.

"Ha, ha, **ha**." Tony replied sourly knowing from past experiences just how much fun **he **was going to have when they double teamed him. "So now that all of the drama is over, can we please eat? I'm starving."

"Come on then, let's see what I can cook up for us." Pepper said walking over to the fridge and quickly opening it up. Tony immediately joined her so they were both now side by side, his arm back around her waist, both of them intently peering into the fridge. "Let's see here. How about some Hawaiian grilled chicken, pasta salad, and homemade Hawaiian bread?" Pepper loved to bake bread and she would always make sure that she baked extra to put in the freezer for quick meals such as this.

"Now we're talking." Rhody said. "That will go great with the Big Wave Golden Ale I brought today."

"I'll go get the grill ready." Tony said shooting a quick grin at Rhody in thanks for the beer, as he leaned over to kiss her softly on the cheek, then pulled back slightly to look deeply into her eyes as he smiled at her.

She smiled back her response to him as he turned to walk outside onto the patio to their outdoor kitchen.

"You know I really don't know how it just happened, but I suddenly get the feeling that you two are going to work out just fine." Rhody told her with a heartfelt smile "After all, my mom has always said that you two were just made for each other. She and my sisters are going to be so happy when I tell them about the two of you finally getting together. And speaking about happy people, I don't think I've ever seen him or you, for that matter, any happier than right now."

"I **am** happy, Jimmy." She replied as she turned to smile at him. "And I believe that he is too. The past 8 months of us trying to move from friendship into romance hasn't been exactly a smooth journey, but then nothing is ever easy with us. We both carry a lot of history and baggage between and with us. All I know is that I really do love him with all of my heart, and I can't picture myself being with anyone but him now."

"And I know that the little shrimp loves you more than anything or anyone on the planet too. I alsoknow that he **will** be devoted to you for the rest of his life, so you won't have to ever worry about him reverting back into his old self. **That **Tony Stark never made it out of the cave in Afghanistan." Rhody said with conviction as he pulled out a cutting board and knife for the chicken. "And he **will** make a good husband for you too when the time comes, Pepper, shotgun or no shotgun." Rhody began slicing up the chicken as she began thawing out the bread in the oven. "And you do know that I plan on holding both of you to taking those wedding vows…..and I don't mean two or three years from now either. Six months to a year tops. You two need to have kids of your own while you are still young enough to really enjoy them. Tony has more than enough of Maria in him to over power any of the Stark genes when it comes to being a good parent. You'll see. And I definitely think it would do the little dweeb some good to be peed and pooped on by someone else for a change."

Pepper started laughing as her mind immediately conjured up Tony changing diapers. She moved over to the cabinets taking out a mixing bowl for her to make her secret Hawaiian sauce for the chicken in.

"Having fun at my expense, no doubt." Tony said loudly as he walked back through the patio doors, hearing their mixed laughter.

"Actually I was attempting to distract Pepper so I could finally steal her secret Hawaiian sauce recipe from her." Rhody teased trying to peek over her shoulder as she instinctly blocked him. "And it almost worked, too."

Pepper actually had many 'secret' recipes and stealing them from her to give to his three sisters had been a game between her and Rhody for years. What Rhody didn't know was that Pepper had already given his sisters her recipes on the condition that they never make them for Rhody. And early on in their relationships, Tony had become her self-appointed protector against Rhody's culinary snooping. And Rhody had often used Tony's protective behavior towards her to torment him, much to his own delight.

"Come on Chef James, I need to share a new modification for War Machine with you." Tony replied taking Rhody by the arm and leading him away from Pepper winking at her knowingly as they walked away from her. "You know I have to protect my woman." He could barely be heard saying as they walked down the steps to his workshop.

She smiled at his words, enjoying his protectiveness and the possessiveness in his voice as he spoke of her. She looked up and out the window as two pelicans flew past the mansion in the clear blue afternoon sky and she sighed deeply, her mind reflecting quickly upon all the events of last night and today. Yes, she knew without a doubt that it wouldn't be easy living with Tony Stark. But she also knew that it would be even harder living without him.


End file.
